KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 9): The new wave of infection is gaining strength in Malaysia. The daily new infection figure has stayed above 10,000 for four consecutive days.
The country’s daily number of new Covid-19 cases climbed further to 17,134 on Wednesday (Feb 9) — the highest level since Sept 17 last year when there were 17,577 cases. It is almost 23% from 13,944 the day before.
Of the 17,134 daily cases reported on Wednesday, 86 cases (0.5%) are in Categories 3, 4, and 5; while 17,048 more cases (99.5%) consist of Categories 1 and 2, according to Health director Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a statement.
Daily Covid-19 recoveries stood at 5,681. This brought the latest tally of recoveries so far to 2.829 million versus 2.956 million confirmed coronavirus infections.
Active cases climb to 83,701 — highest since Oct 19
The number of active cases increased to 83,701 on Tuesday (Feb 8) — the highest level since Oct 19, 2021 (85,917 cases).
The latest active case count was 19.4% higher than the 69,572 reported on Sunday (Feb 6), when daily cases topped five digits for the first time in five months at 10,089.
The Klang Valley, comprising Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, recorded a total of 28,676 active cases, or 34.3% of the 83,701 active cases. Selangor recorded 21,308 active cases, Kuala Lumpur 6,483 cases, and Putrajaya 885 cases.
A total of 73,405 active cases were undergoing home quarantine, 4,958 cases were treated in low-risk quarantine and treatment centres (PKRC), 4,570 patients were admitted to hospitals, and 138 patients were treated in intensive care units.
According to the Ministry of Health's COVIDNOW portal, the average occupancy rate of the country's hospital beds increased to 70%, compared to 67.3% the previous day.
There were 13 deaths reported on Tuesday, bringing the country’s Covid 19 death toll to 32,056.
Selangor leads with most cumulative booster vaccinations as of Feb 8
As of Tuesday, a total of 12.616 million adults or 53.9% of the adult population received their booster shots. According to the ministry’s data, 3.208 million booster doses were administered in Selangor, followed by 1.507 million in Kuala Lumpur, Johor (1.5 million) and Sarawak (1.458 million doses).
Meanwhile, a total of 22.931 million people, or 98% of the adult population had completed their two-dose vaccination, while 23.207 million people or 99.2% of the group had received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine.