This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on April 20, 2020

KUALA LUMPUR: As the rate of recovery accelerated over the past week, the number of active positive cases in many states and the federal territories (FTs) dropped below half the infection number, according to statistics released by the ministry of health yesterday.

The statistics show that 14 out of 30 red zones now had less than 40 active Covid-19 cases.

However, Kuala Lumpur, Melaka and Sarawak were the one federal territory and two states where the active positive cases were more than half of the tally of infections.

In Kuala Lumpur, where the ministry will step up its screening and testing efforts among migrant workers in downtown areas, there were 727 active cases — the highest among all states and FTs — compared with its total infection number of 985 as of Saturday. Lembah Pantai, which covers part of downtown areas in the capital city, was the health district with most infections in the country. Its active cases amounted to 473 patients, compared with 613 confirmed cases.

In the other three red zones in Kuala Lumpur, the number of active cases in Kepong was 121 (versus a total of 153), followed by Cheras at 49 (85) and Titiwangsa  84 (134).

In Selangor, the state with the most red zones, the number of active cases was 414, less than half of the total number of infections of 1,340 as of Saturday. The number of active cases in Hulu Langat, where a few villages have been placed under lockdown, was 130, less than one-third of the infection number of 445. Likewise, in Petaling, there were 120 active cases versus a total of 373, Klang (69 versus 173), Gombak (45 versus 144) and Sepang (23 versus 70).

Improvement was also seen in Johor, Perak and Sabah, where two red zones had less than 40 active cases in each of the states.

Meanwhile, the number of green zones increased to 47 (with zero active cases) from 26 previously as 21 yellow zones now had zero active cases.