PUTRAJAYA: The effectiveness of the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) can only be determined after the 14-day long incubation period concludes on May 18.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the ministry has yet to see the outcome of the CMCO, which came into force on May 4, and has since been extended for another four weeks from May 12 until June 9.
At the moment, Dr Noor Hisham said the ministry has only obtained the outcome of the stringent directives enforced by the government during the implementation of the third and fourth phase of the Movement Control Order (MCO), which has successfully brought down the R0 or R-naught from 3.5 to 0.35.
R0 is an epidemiological term used to measure contagiousness of an infectious disease.
"We are closely monitoring the Covid-19 situation including the daily new cases, cumulative total cases and active cases.
"However, we can only see the outcome of the CMCO after May 18, (or) at least during the incubation period of 14 days.
"If cases or R0 continue to increase after May 18, then, we may reverse our decision," said Dr Noor Hisham during his daily press briefings on the Covid-19 situation in the country here today.
He said if the cases or R0 after May 18 is still under control, the ministry will consider formulating more Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) to facilitate the reopening of several other sectors such as the social and education sectors.
According to the modelling and projection prepared by the National Institute of Health, the R0 will increase to 1.6 by the middle of next month if people fail to comply with the SOP in place for the CMCO.
He explained that if R0 reached or surpassed 1.6, this means that there is exponential surge in the number of Covid-19 cases in the country that will require stricter measures in order to contain the outbreak.
"If we can bring down further the R0 below 0.3 or to 0.1, rest assured that the ministry will consider reopening more sectors in the country.
"Hence, it is up to the public to comply to the SOP and exercise social distancing to reduce the number of Covid-19 cases in the country." he said.