KUALA LUMPUR, April 28 — Kelantan’s Kota Baru district is now the third red zone in the country to become a green zone with no active Covid-19 cases under treatment there, which also means that the entire state of Kelantan now only has one Covid-19 patient still receiving treatment, based on the Health Ministry’s latest data released today.

The first two districts in Malaysia that managed to improve from a red zone status to a green zone status are Rembau in Negri Sembilan and Hilir Perak in Perak, after the number of active Covid-19 cases there fell to zero on April 20 and April 26 respectively.

A closer look at Kelantan

As one of the least affected states by Covid-19 with 155 cases recorded in the entire state as of April 27, Kelantan only had one red zone with the Kota Baru district with 90 cases recorded in the district so far.

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In the Health Ministry’s daily nationwide maps that started showing the number of active cases by district, the Kota Baru district initially had eight active cases on April 18, before falling to six (April 19), five (April 23), four (April 24) and finally to zero active cases on April 27 (yesterday).

How red zones have a chance to become green zones

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Based on the Health Ministry’s categorisation of districts nationwide in terms of Covid-19 cases, there are three colour codes: green zone (zero cases), yellow zone (one to 40 cases), red zone (at least 41 cases).

In assigning colour codes to each district, the Health Ministry also makes a distinction based on the total cumulative cases (or all the cases recorded so far in a district) and based on the number of active cases (or cases still under treatment after deducting deaths and recovered patients).

Districts marked as green zones fall into one of two categories: those which have not recorded any Covid-19 cases, or those which had recorded Covid-19 cases previously but currently have no more active cases.

Like Rembau and Hilir Perak, the example of Kota Baru district shows that it is possible for red zones to eventually be recategorised as a green zone, if Covid-19 patients in that district recover from the disease.

Daily increase in number of green zones

The number of green zones has continued to increase every day, in line with the general downward trend in the number of Covid-19 patients still under treatment every day and also the relatively low daily number of new Covid-19 cases.

 

 

Based on the Health Ministry’s figures, the number of green zones with zero active cases were 47 districts (as of April 18), which increased to 52 districts (April 19), 56 districts (April 20), leaping to 65 on April 21, before going down slightly to 64 (April 22), going back up to 65 (April 23), 66 (April 24), 67 (April 25), and 68 (April 26).

The number has continued to increase from 68 green zones on April 26 to 76 such districts with zero active cases on April 27.

As of April 27, Kelantan’s Kota Baru district became the sole new green zone in terms of active cases in Peninsular Malaysia, while seven newly-included districts from Sarawak were added on as new green zones.

The Health Ministry’s daily nationwide maps have as of April 27 amended the list of districts displayed for Sarawak, up from the 31 districts previously displayed on April 26 to 39 districts on April 27. The eight new districts now included for Sarawak are Sebauh, Tebedu, Kabong, Pusa, Marudi, Subis, Beluru, Tanjung Manis.

With the exception of the Tebedu district which has one active Covid-19 case on April 27, the seven other newly-included districts in Sarawak have never recorded any Covid-19 case. 

Klang no longer a red zone

The Klang district was one of the six red zones in worst-hit Selangor, but has now eased to become a yellow zone in terms of active cases as more and more patients recovered.

Klang, which had recorded 173 Covid-19 cases as of April 18 with 69 active cases then, had continued to improve to 68 cases (April 20), 51 cases (April 21), 44 cases (April 22), before further improving greatly to 29 active cases on April 27. 

Klang’s total tally also increased by two cases to 175 on April 27, but its total active cases of 29 means it still falls below the 41-case threshold for red zones and is now a yellow zone.

Klang’s improvement means that the number of red zones in terms of active cases has reduced from 13 districts to 12 districts nationwide as of April 27.

In terms of active cases, the number of red zones in Malaysia was at 16 (April 18), 17 (April 19), 13 (April 20), 14 (April 21), but has fallen back to 13 on April 22 and had stayed at 13 districts up until April 26. 

The positive trend of green zones increasing daily in Malaysia is in line with the similar positive recent trend of the daily number of recovered patients generally beating the daily number of new Covid-19 patients.

During the MCO period which is now in its 42nd day today, there were 18 out of 41 days when there were more Covid-19 patients discharged than new cases recorded.

 

 

No new red zones, no green zones for cumulative cases lost

In terms of cumulative cases or the total cases recorded so far, the number of red zones in Malaysia had initially been increasing from 27 (April 14), 28 (April 16), 29 (April 17), 30 (April 18), but has not increased for more than a week now with the number remaining at 30 districts as of April 27.

As for green zones in terms of cumulative cases, there were initially 39 districts which had never recorded any Covid-19 cases on March 25, but this gradually reduced to 26 districts on April 18.

Also for slightly more than a week since April 18, the number of these green zones have remained at 26 districts as of April 26.

Along with the addition of the seven newly-included districts in Sarawak, Malaysia now has 33 green zones or districts which had never recorded any Covid-19 cases as of April 27.

No time to be complacent

Malaysia has so far recorded 5,820 Covid-19 cases as of April 27, the rate of recovery is high with 67.99 per cent of these patients recovered, while the death toll is at 99 or 1.7 per cent.

While Malaysians can celebrate the small victories and positive statistics amid the movement control order, the Health Ministry has cautioned against being complacent as the war against Covid-19 is far from over.