THE daily Covid-19 tally could hit 10,000 soon based on the current trend of the cases, warned health experts.

Malaysia has been seeing an unprecedented high of daily cases with yesterday’s number breaching the 8,000-mark.

Malaysian Public Health Physicians’ Association president Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar said reaching 10,000 cases daily is possible if the country’s infectivity rate (R-naught or R0) remains above 1.0.

He said the cases that are being reported now are those which dated back to two weeks ago.

“With the R0 being higher than 1.0, the cases in the community right now should be two, three times higher,” Dr Zainal told The Malaysian Insight.

He anticipates more cases in the next few days from Hari Raya clusters and from new screenings.

Hari Raya was on May 13 and 14. The nationwide movement control order (MCO 3.0) began on May 12.

Hari Raya visits, however, were allowed but under strict conditions, such as a ban on large gatherings, banquets and open houses, and limits on the number of people in a house at any one time, and only from within the same district.

MCO 3.0 is scheduled to end on June 7 but Putrajaya last night announced a total lockdown from June 1 till June 14 with another four weeks extension if the cases don’t drop.

Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said on May 12 that the daily tally could pass 10,000 if nothing is done to prevent the spread of virulent variants.

He was referring to variants of concerns which originated from India, the UK, Brazil and South Africa.

The Indian, UK and South African variants have been detected in Malaysia, adding to concerns that these strains would continue to drive up infection numbers, coupled with lax observance of standard operating procedures (SOP).

Universiti Putra Malaysia medical epidemiologist Associate Prof Dr Malina Osman also agreed a 10,000 daily tally is possible if the R0 remains high.

“With the latest figures on cases and R0, 10,000 (cases a day) is possible.

“It depends on the R0 as well as drastic measures by our community to implement self-lockdown.

“We have to face reality. There is not much we can do now except to strictly follow the advice from the Health Ministry and to practice self-lockdown,” she said.

The nationwide R0 on May 27 was 1.14, with 8,290 cases reported yesterday. – May 29, 2021.