KUALA LUMPUR, March 19 — Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah posted a graphic that compared the coronavirus trajectory in Italy to Malaysia, underscoring public health officials’ fears about a possible explosion of Covid-19 here.
The unattributed graphic, which has been circulating on WhatsApp, highlighted similar case numbers on a day-to-day basis between Malaysia and Italy, the worst affected country after China where Covid-19 originated from late last year.
BBC reported that nearly 3,000 people in Italy have died from the novel coronavirus after recording 475 deaths today, the biggest increase since the outbreak began. The European nation has confirmed nearly 36,000 infections, with over 4,000 recovering successfully.
Malaysia, which has recorded over 100 daily new infections since Sunday, confirmed a total of 790 Covid-19 cases as of yesterday, including two deaths.
The graphic posted by Dr Noor Hisham, the top Ministry of Health (MOH) official, noted that Italy confirmed 888 coronavirus cases as of February 28, while Malaysia reported 790 infections as of yesterday.
According to the graphic, Italy’s Covid-19 daily trajectory grows to 1,128 cases on February 29, increasing to 1,694 on March 1, then to 2,036 on March 2, until hitting 12,462 cases on March 11.
“There’s only a small window of opportunity for Malaysia to stem the rapid spread of #COVID19 , if we missed it, chances are the third wave will be unleashed.
“We may have to extend the movement control order & as whether we succeed or not, it’s up to you, so please stay at home,” Dr Noor Hisham tweeted.
