THE air quality in all 68 areas across the country where the Department of Environment has its air monitoring stations are reported to be in the “moderate” category as of 11am today as Malaysia prepares to celebrate Hari Raya.

Johan Setia in Selangor, Kota Baru in Kelantan and Larkin in Johor which briefly experienced “unhealthy” air quality yesterday have all returned to “moderate” readings.

Johan Setia, showed an air pollutant index (API) reading of 152 at noon yesterday, had unhealthy air quality for 11 hours.

Its API reading at 11am today was 82.

An API reading of 0-50 is in the “good” category, 51-100 “moderate”, 101-200 “unhealthy”, 201-300 “very unhealthy” and a reading of above 300 is considered “hazardous”.

Kota Baru experienced unhealthy air quality from noon yesterday to 9pm while Larkin experienced it for just two hours from 5pm to 7pm.

Today, the reading for Kota Baru is 83 and 74 for Larkin.

The air quality for Limbang in Sarawak, Keningau and Kimanis in Sabah had slightly deteriorated from good to moderate.

Limbang, from a low API reading of 49 at 4pm yesterday, had a reading in the low 60s since 3am today with its latest reading being 62.

Kimanis and Keningau slipped from good to moderate at 11pm last night with readings of 54 and 55 respectively. – April 19, 2023.