KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 1): Malaysia reported 260 new confirmed Covid-19 cases today — the highest daily count since June 4 when there were 277 infections, and the second highest on record since the first cases were reported on Jan 24 — according to Ministry of Health (MoH) director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, who described the spike as "worrying".
A breakdown of the tally according to states shows Sabah topping the list with 118 new cases, followed by Kedah (98), Kuala Lumpur (13) and Selangor (13), Johor (five), Putrajaya (five), Terengganu (two), Perlis (two), Melaka (one), Pahang (one) and Penang (one), according to the MoH.
The jump in new infections brought the country's total cases to 11,484.
As the number of recoveries came in far lower at 47 versus the daily new infections, the number of active cases rose to 1,334 — marking the fourth consecutive day that active cases stayed above 1,000. The recovery tally, meanwhile, stood at 10,014 cases or 87.2% of the total.
“We have seen increasing cases lately, and that is probably the beginning of a new wave. It depends on us, on whether we can flatten the curve again,” Noor Hisham told a media briefing today.
Of the 260 new cases, 259 were domestically transmitted infections, while one was an imported case of a foreigner who just travelled from the UK.
For the domestic transmissions, 130 cases involved Malaysians, while the remainder were foreigners.
“Among the 259 new cases, some 31 cases have a history of having travelled to Sabah. This brought the total [number of] cases of those who have travelled to Sabah since Sept 20 to 119,” Noor Hisham said.
On the inter-district movement control to be implemented throughout Sabah, as announced by Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob, Noor Hisham said the decision will help to control the spread of Covid-19 in the state.
The death toll from the coronavirus in the country remained at 136, he added, with no new fatalities reported today.