KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 8): Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 fatalities hit a new high at 360 today, lifting the coronavirus death toll to 10,749. The previous record was 257 deaths on Wednesday (Aug 4).
Daily Covid-19 cases, however, fell further to 18,688 – the lowest in six days – down from 19,257 reported the day before.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah highlighted that 85 death cases today were reported upon arrival at the hospital.
Of the latest Covid-19 fatalities, 221 deaths were in Selangor, 41 in Kuala Lumpur, 20 in Melaka, 17 in Perak, 15 in Penang, 14 in Johor, seven in Kedah, six in Negeri Sembilan, six in Pahang, five in Sabah, five in Terengganu, two in Putrajaya and one in Kelantan.
The country’s Covid-19 active cases which carry high transmission risks increased further to 225,393 – the six straight days of staying above the 20,000 mark.
The number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care units stood at 1,095 – two straight weeks of staying above 1,000 – leaving 571 patients needing ventilators to breathe.
Selangor reported 6,565 – the lowest in five days – after the daily number soared above 8,000 cases previously. The most populous state detected 7,084 cases yesterday. Kuala Lumpur came in second reporting 1,883 cases (down from 2,450 on Saturday Aug 7), according to a tweet by Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
Elsewhere, Sabah detected 1,379 new cases, Johor (1,308)and Negeri Sembilan (1,140).
The country’s total number of Covid-19 infections reached 1.26 million, compared with 758,967 as at July 1, as the mass screening tests continue.
In terms of Covid-19 testing nationwide, a total of 143,476 individuals were screened in the last 24 hours, indicating a positivity rate of 13.03%.
The country’s total Covid-19 cases increased further to 1.26 million versus 1.03 million total recoveries.
Nearly 24% new Covid-19 cases are vaccinated individuals
Dr Noor Hisham said only 4,460 cases or 23.9% of today’s new cases involved vaccinated people.
The breakdown of cases and unvaccinated individuals is as follows:
- 8,928 cases in Category 1 (no symptoms); 87.2% unvaccinated
- 9,359 cases in Category 2 (mild symptoms); 65.3% unvaccinated
- 135 cases in Category 3 (patients with pneumonia); 62.2% unvaccinated
- 81 cases in Category 4 (pneumonia requiring oxygen therapy); 82.7% unvaccinated
- 185 cases in Category 5 (critical cases requiring assisted ventilation); 97.3% unvaccinated
39 more clusters detected
The ministry detected 39 more Covid-19 clusters. This comprised 18 workplace clusters, 15 community clusters, two detention clusters, two high-risk group clusters and one each of education and religious clusters, with a total of 1,172 infections.
To date, 3,938 clusters have been reported nationwide, including 2,725 that have been declared ended.