PUTRAJAYA, Oct 2 — The federal government has not discussed a lockdown for Selangor despite the rising cases and clusters there, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today.
He conceded that the infection rate, expressed as R-nought (R0), is now at 1.99, but stressed that the government is actively taking measures to control the virus from spreading.
“For Selangor, yes, the R0 is 1.99, but the public health control measures are ongoing to contain the infection.
“Just like how we managed to do for Kedah, we will be able to bring the R0 down to less than 1.0,” he told a news conference here on the Covid-19 situation in Malaysia.
When the R0 equals one, it means each patient will infect one other person. The current R0 rate for Selangor indicates that each infected person is spreading the virus to more than one other person.
The Health Ministry today announced there are two new Covid-19 clusters in Selangor, noting that the index patients were both recent returnees from high infection areas in Sabah.
Seri Setia cluster in Selangor started with a 36-year-old Malaysian man who visited Semporna on the east coast of Sabah from September 16 to 20 and tested positive for the coronavirus on September 27.
Seri Anggerik cluster in Hulu Selangor began with a 37-year-old Malaysian man who travelled to the north Borneo state from September 9 to 18 and started showing symptoms from September 25.
“Active public health control measures have been carried out in these areas.
“So if we manage to conduct these precautions, there has yet to be a discussion on whether or not a lockdown will happen in Selangor,” said Dr Noor Hisham.
The recent rise in cases has triggered talks about a possible “lockdown” in the state.
On September 28, the Health Ministry detected a new Covid-19 cluster in Klang, Selangor following eight positive cases there.
Dubbed the Jalan Apas Cluster, the ministry said the index patients were a husband-and-wife couple who had travelled to Tawau and Semporna from September 13 to 16 who showed flu-like symptoms such as a cough and fever on September 18. They went to a medical facility the next day.
