YANGON, Oct. 22 (Xinhua) -- Myanmar has seen a gradual decline in daily testing positivity rate of COVID-19 so far, a health expert told Xinhua on Thursday.
"The percent positive of the tests has declined to around 8 percent starting the first week of this month when it was around 19 to 21 percent in previous two months," said professor Soe Lwin Nyein, a public health expert and senior advisor of the Health and Sports Ministry.
He said the positivity rate is still high and the transmission rate in the community is high unless it remains below 5 percent.
Public health authorities have been trying to cut the chain of community transmissions by promoting non-pharmaceutical interventions while the treatment measures are also being strictly taken to cure the patients.
"As long as people actively follow the non-pharmaceutical interventions, the testing positivity rate will decline to less than 5 percent," the expert said.
"If the positivity remains below 5 percent for at least two weeks, it means the transmission is under control and the government may ease some restrictions in the country," he added.
The number of COVID-19 cases resurged in Myanmar since Aug. 16 amid the second wave of outbreak, when the densely populated Yangon region has witnessed rocketing numbers of infection cases.
According to the ministry's figures, the country saw 2.2 percent of case fatality rate on Wednesday while it was 2.3 percent on Tuesday.
Myanmar confirmed the first two cases of COVID-19 on March 23. A total of 552,448 samples have been tested for the infectious disease as of Wednesday.
So far, 39,696 positive cases and 972 deaths have been reported while a total of 18,865 recovered patients have been discharged from hospitals, according to the ministry's latest figures. Enditem
