DR NOOR Hisham Abdullah denied any manipulation of daily Covid-19 figures, and said the Health Ministry had anticipated a spike in cases. 

The director-general of health said a team is involved in the collection of data and that every state would enter their data using a system the ministry has. 

“We collect our data up until 12pm daily using the public health information system, where each state would enter its data.  

“We will collect and discuss. It’s just not me. There is a team that will look at the data and clusters involved.  

“This is not manipulation. These are the facts we have, which we have been using since day one,” he said at a press conference in Putrajaya today.

He was asked on the sudden spike in numbers and Putrajaya’s effort to secure royal consent to proclaim emergency in the country to fight the pandemic. 

Noor Hisham said the ministry has anticipated and projected the nation would see more than a thousand cases in the near future if the R-naught (R0) value remains at 1.5.  

He said in order to see fewer daily cases, the R0 value must be brought below the 1.0 mark. 

“Maybe after October 31, we will no longer get three-digit cases but four digits.  

“If we can bring down the R0 to less than 1, then we will see development. Based on our projection, we can reduce the numbers to three digits within four weeks. 

“If we can reduce the R0 to less than 0.3, then we can even record two-digit or single-digit cases,” he said.  

Malaysia once again breached the four-digit mark today with a new record of 1,240 cases.  

Of the new cases, Sabah accounted for the bulk of infections, with the state recording 927 or 74.8% of today’s cases.

Sabah has now recorded the highest daily Covid-19 cases for 20 consecutive days, with the caseload in the state since the onset of the pandemic now standing at 12,745. – October 26, 2020.