While things have started to look better for some of the states in the country, this one state is still struggling with the pandemic.
Keep fighting!
For the second straight day, the historic town of Melaka recorded the highest COVID-19 infectivity rate (Rt) in the country, Bernama reported.The state recorded a Rt of 1.27 on Monday (9 February), which is a slight jump from Sunday's number of 1.17.
However, the good news is that the country's infectivity rate has dropped to 0.91 as a whole.
Kadar kebolehjangkitan Covid-19 atau Ro/Rt pada jangkaan mengikut kes seharian pada 8 Februari 2021 untuk seluruh negara adalah 0.91. Manakala pecahan mengikut negeri adalah seperti di lampiran. pic.twitter.com/vdBfDrvZzH
— Noor Hisham Abdullah (@DGHisham) February 8, 2021
The infographics shared by Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah on his Twitter page, showed that, Penang had the second highest Rt at 1.09, followed by Selangor (1.08), Johor (1.07), Kuala Lumpur (1.02) and Sarawak (1.0).
The rest of the states have recorded a Rt of less than 1.0: Pahang (0.94), Negri Sembilan (0.93), Perak (0.92), Kedah (0.87), Terengganu (0.86), Sabah (0.81), Kelantan (0.77) and Putrajaya (0.71).
While the number of daily cases is not where we want it to be, we are, at least, slowly taking charge of the pandemic.
What's R-naught?
R0, pronounced as R-naught, is a value used to indicate how infectious a disease is.According to healthline.com, the R0 is also known as the reproduction number.
"R0 tells you the average number of people who will contract a contagious disease from one person with that disease.
"It specifically applies to a population of people who were previously free of infection and haven’t been vaccinated.
"For example, if a disease has an R0 of 18, a person who has the disease will transmit it to an average of 18 other people," the website states.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Health (MOH) states that the higher the R0 value, the more people will get infected.
MOH goes on to say that the R0 value can also indicate if measures taken, including preventive measures, are effective or not.
At the start of the Movement Control Order (MCO) in March, the R0 value stood at 3.5.
The value was then lowered to 0.3 but on 7 September 2020, the value increased to 1.7.
That's when we saw an increase in areas which were under the Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO), Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO and the likes.
The R0 now stands at 0.91.