THE air quality in the country continues to improve with 33 areas having “unhealthy” air quality and another 34 with “moderate” quality, according to air pollutant index (API) released by the Department of Environment.

By 2pm, no area recorded “unhealthy” air.

Four areas – Taiping in Perak, Kluang, Larkin and Pasir Gudang all in Johor – which recorded “very unhealthy” air quality at the break of day today, have all moved to the “unhealthy” category and the trend all over the country seems to be positive.

An API reading of between 0 and 50 indicates “good” air quality, “moderate” (51-100), “unhealthy” (101-200), “very unhealthy” (201-300) and “hazardous” (301 and above).

Taiping moved back to the “unhealthy” from the “very unhealthy” category at 3pm.

Even the two most-polluted areas in the country, Setia Johan in Selangor and Sri Aman in Sarawak, showed improvement.

Setia Johan, whose residents endured “very unhealthy” air this morning, found the air quality improved back to the “unhealthy” category at 4pm.

By 6pm, the API reading for the coastal town in Selangor was 188.

In Sri Aman, the air quality, too, has improved even though the Fire Department are still trying to extinguish pockets of underground fires raging on the outskirt of the town.

At 7pm, the API reading was 105. It was 112 at 1pm.

The situation in Sarawak was helped by heavy rain.

In Kuching, the rain fell heavily early in the morning and the city experienced scattered thunderstorms late morning.

For the first time in weeks, Kuching residents could see some blue sky and the clouds with the rain dissipating the grey dense smoke.

The Meteorology Department has forecast the inter-monsoon period starting tomorrow. – September 23, 2019.