Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the enforcement of the Movement Control Order (MCO) since March 18 has successfully levelled the pandemic curve in the country.

According to him, it was based on the number of positive cases of daily COVID-19 infectivity that showed a decreasing and sometimes horizontal trend as well as an increase in recovery cases which led to a decrease in the number of active cases during the third phase of the MCO.

“The implementation of the third phase of MCO will enter the fourth phase tomorrow, April 29.

“With the increasing number of cases recovered from COVID-19, this has led to a decrease in the number of active cases during the third phase of the MCO.

"This has succeeded in levelling the curve and our country is entering the recovery phase," he said in a daily press conference here on Tuesday.

Dr Noor Hisham said the achievement was a result of the government's proactive and aggressive actions in COVID-19 contagion containment activities during the pre and post-MCO period.

Through the measures taken, he said, it has ensured that the facilities of the Ministry of Health (MOH) could accommodate the number of COVID-19 patients in the country, including the capacity of intensive care units (ICU) and the capacity of the use of ventilators in hospitals.

“The MCO has helped in reducing inter-community interactions and reduces the infectivity of COVID-19.

“In addition to active case detection activities, the MOH and various agencies have adopted a targeted approach for high-risk groups.

"These include the detection, screening, testing, isolation and treatment of individuals within the area of the Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO), the tracking of rally participants in Sri Petaling besides mass gatherings, school tracking and tahfiz madrasah and so on," he added.

Earlier, Dr Noor Hisham announced that there was another COVID-19 death, bringing the cumulative number of deaths in Malaysia to 100 cases.

As of noon on Tuesday, the MOH also recorded 31 new positive cases, bringing the total number of COVID-19 positive cases in the country to 5,851.