KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 13 ― Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the conditional movement recovery order (CMCO) in the Klang Valley has so far been successful in controlling the increased infection rate for the Covid-19 third wave.

He however said he is concerned with people crossing state and district borders as Klang Valley recorded 2.5 times higher cases compared to yesterday, explaining that Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Putrajaya are congested.

"When we announced the CMCO on October 14 in the Klang Valley, many disagreed as it was a proactive measure and there was only one red zone in Klang.

"But if we do not do that, cases here might be higher now,” he said in his press conference.

"However we are concerned about the movement of the people who are crossing districts and states as the population density here is very high,” he added.

Dr Noor Hisham was asked whether the CMCO was enough as the Klang Valley states today recorded 567 cases, dwarfing their number yesterday of 224.

He said that currently MoH are still in control of the cases as since October 14, the infectivity or R-naught numbers went down to 1 from 2.2

"If our R-naught or infectivity rates are 1.5 we will have more than 2,000 cases a day. If we have that in a week, our hospital will be overwhelmed.

"So this is the important thing, we have to control,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said the previously announced MCO on March 18 was better at controlling the infections, however the government needed to find a compromise to let the business to still be operated.

"If we are 100 per cent compliant (to the Covid-19 SOP), you do not need MCO. If we use Recovery MCO then there would be no restrictions (on movement).

"(So) We return to the CMCO which have road blocks to protect the green zone,” he said.