Sarawak Covid-19 infectivity rate falls to 0.96, Health Ministry aims for RT below 0.6

Dr Noor Hisham fields questions at a recent press conference. — Bernama photo

KUCHING (Feb 10): Sarawak’s Covid-19 infectivity rate, referred to as RT or R-naught (R0), has dropped to 0.96 yesterday from 1.05 last Friday, according to Health Director-General Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

Infographics shared by Dr Noor Hisham on Twitter last night showed that Sarawak was the state with the seventh highest RT in the country, also an improvement compared to last week.

Sarawak’s RT appears to be on a decline. Last Saturday, it was 1.03, followed by 1.01 on Sunday and 1.00 on Monday.

Kadar kebolehjangkitan Covid-19 atau Ro/Rt pd 9 Februari 2021 utk negara adalah 0.91. Manakala pecahan mengikut negeri seperti di lampiran.
Ro/Rt hari ini kekal 0.91, berlandaskan tempoh masa 7 hari yg diperhatikan pd 2 & 3hb Feb 2021 yg menunjukkan trend peningkatan. pic.twitter.com/e2UGwCMUNa

— Noor Hisham Abdullah (@DGHisham) February 9, 2021

Meanwhile, the state with the highest RT of above one yesterday was Melaka at (1.23), followed by Penang (1.06), Johor (1.05), Selangor (1.04) and Kuala Lumpur (one).

Besides Sarawak, the states that recorded RT of less than one were Pahang (0.98), Negri Sembilan and Perak (0.83), Labuan (0.92), Kedah and Terengganu (0.87), Sabah (0.83), Kelantan (0.81) and Putrajaya (0.75).

Dr Noor Hisham tweeted that the Covid-19 infectivity rate yesterday for the country as a whole was 0.91 and based on observation over seven days, there was an increasing trend.

“The Health Ministry is aiming at a R-naught or infectivity rate of below 0.6 by stepping up public health activities to prevent and control the infections,” he said in the following tweet.

The Health Ministry had previously explained that the value of Rt or R0 refers to the infectivity of a virus in the community at the beginning of an epidemic – how many individuals on average can be infected by a case.

If the value is more than 1, it means that the disease would continue to spread at a rate depending on the R0. As such, the ministry had aimed at reducing the RT to less than 1 in order to break the Covid-19 chain of transmission.

Yesterday, Sarawak’s Covid-19 cases rose to triple digits again after a double-digit respite on Tuesday.

The State DIsaster Management Committee had recorded 111 new cases and two more deaths, bringing the state’s tally to 5,871 cases with 55 fatalities.

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