Siva Selan in Current Affairs On June 11, 2021, 11:28 pm

COVID-19 Cases Dropped Only 3.6% Since 1st June, But Infectivity Rate Dips To A New Low

COVID-19 cases dropped only by 3.6% since 1st June

It’s almost 2 weeks since Malaysians went into a full movement control order (FMCO) or MCO 3.0, and it was just announced that the FMCO will be extended to 28th June 2021. Despite a significant jump from yesterday’s 5,671 positive cases, Malaysia is still seeing some positive improvements in cases that generally hovered over the 7,000 and 8,000 marks before the FMCO kicked in.

On 11th June 2021, Malaysia’s daily positive cases spiked to 6,849, with Selangor leading the numbers with 2,558 confirmed cases, followed by Kuala Lumpur with 884 positive cases and Sarawak with 699 cases. However, Malaysia is seeing a 3.6% dip in daily cases compared to the 7,105 cases reported on 1st June 2021.

Lowest infectivity rate in more than 2 months

Image credit: @DGHisham

Despite the worrying number of cases, it is worth noting that the COVID-19 infectivity rate in Malaysia has been dropping steadily since the start of the FMCO. On 10th June 2021, Malaysia’s Director-General of Health, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, posted on Twitter saying that Malaysia’s COVID-19 infectivity rate stands at 0.91 – the lowest since 19th March 2021.

Also known as the R0 value, the infectivity rate is an indicator of how many new COVID-19 cases there will be with every confirmed case. A value of 0.91 means that for every 1 new COVID-19 case, there will be 0.91 new COVID-19 case stemming from it.

Previously, Dr Noor Hisham expressed concern during his press conference about the national infectivity rate remaining above 1.0. Because that meant that the virus was more likely to spread among the people.

Now that it has gone down, it’s good to know that the lockdown is actually helping to control the spread of the virus in the country.

More recoveries, but also more deaths on 11th June 2021

Image credit: @KKMPutrajaya

A breakdown into today’s COVID-19 stats shows that Malaysia recorded a total of 7,749 daily recoveries on 11th June 2021. This is slightly higher than the previous day of 7,325 recoveries.

However, Malaysians should take note that the number of total deaths for 11th June is also higher. A total of 84 deaths have been confirmed, bringing the total number of COVID-19 deaths in Malaysia to 3,768. On 10th June 2021, the total number of deaths recorded was 73.

COVID-19 cases and infectivity rates dropped since the FMCO started

While it may not be entirely positive news, it’s still important for all of us to continue observing the COVID-19 SOPs such as wearing masks, practising good hygiene and maintaining social distance to break the chain of infection.

COVID-19 is something that we can prevail against if we all work together as a nation for each other’s well-being and safety.