BRACE for more Covid-19 cases, at least until April!
The country should see a continued admission of new infection cases daily, but this would taper off before June.
Had it not been for swift counter measures presently in place, figures could be far worse.
These were observations noted in a report by analysts reported by Bernama.
The country’s aggressive testing strategy: ‘test per million capita’ for COVID-19 has far exceeded its ASEAN peers and even several European nations, and this could result in higher reported infection numbers, the report by JP Morgan read.
The report , entitled “Add Malaysia to Asia Infection Curve’, predicted the infection rate in Malaysia would peak in the middle of April at about 6,300.
It acknowledged the recent control movement order helped slow the spread and with border controls, the secondary spread of the epidemic could see further results.
The control movement included restricted entry for foreigners/restrictions on Malaysians traveling abroad, closure of schools and colleges, bans on social gatherings, and shut down of shops except those dealing with daily essentials.
On Malaysia’s testing capability, the report read the country’s ‘test per million capita’ is 482, 4x-81x higher compared with that of other ASEAN countries of six to 109 tests per million population and even higher than several European countries.
On Tuesday, 106 new cases were recorded this brought to 1,624 the cumulative number of Covid-19 cases, and one death reported.
Ministry of Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah revealed investigations showed 43 of the new cases were linked to the Seri Petaling mosque cluster.
“Sixty-three other cases were related to clusters and are still under investigation for confirmation,” he said in a statement.
At present 64 patients were undergoing intensive care treatment and 27 provided respiratory aid.
To date, Malaysia recorded 1,624 cases, of which 183 have recovered, and 15 deaths reported.
In the north, a month-long state of emergency will be imposed in Thailand from Thursday, March 26. To date, Thailand reported 827 Covid-19 cases with four fatalities.
Singapore recorded 49 new cases, bringing to total 558 infection cases reported to date.
