KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 16): Malaysia reported 27,831 Covid-19 cases on Wednesday (Feb 16), a new record high of daily cases since the first coronavirus case was reported in the country in January 2020, as the Omicron wave sweeps across the country.
This broke the previous highest daily tally of 24,599 cases, which was reported on Aug 26, 2021.
Of the new infections, 27,734 patients showed none to little symptoms and were categorised under Categories 1 and 2 while the remaining 97 patients were more serious cases and were placed under Categories 3, 4 and 5.
“We need to brace for this Omicron storm together. Many countries in our region are seeing an upward trend. Please comply with all public health and social measures (SOP) to brace for the Omicron storm.
“Please get vaccinated and get your booster dose to protect yourself and your loved ones,” Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah tweeted on Wednesday.
With the latest figures, Malaysia's cumulative confirmed Covid-19 infections now total 3,111,514. However, 7,912 people have recovered from the disease, raising total recoveries so far to 2,876,450.
Active cases climb to 182,965; average occupancy rate for hospital beds now at 64.2%
The country’s active cases climbed further to 182,965 on Tuesday (Feb 15), including 170,635 who were undergoing home quarantine, according to the Health Ministry’s COVIDNOW portal.
This was the highest number since September 26 last year, when 183,287 active cases were reported, and an increase of 8.62% from the 168,447 cases reported on Monday.
Daily Covid-19 deaths increased slightly to 31 on Tuesday — eight in Sabah, seven in Selangor, six in Johor, five in Penang, two in Kedah, and one each in Negeri Sembilan, Perak and Terengganu — versus 24 deaths a day earlier. The Covid-19 death toll stood at 32,180 including 6,514 brought-in-dead cases.
However, the number of daily Covid-19 deaths on Tuesday decreased by 92.11% from the 393 deaths reported on Aug 26 last year.
The average occupancy rate of hospital beds in the country was 64.2% on Tuesday. Among States and Federal Territories, Melaka led with the highest occupancy rate at 86.9%, followed by Johor (83.9%), Kedah (77.7%), Terengganu (77.5%), Kelantan (75.2%) and Selangor (74.1%).
Kuala Lumpur had the lowest occupancy rate of 26.4%.
The seven-day moving average of daily admissions to public hospitals fell to 2,034 compared with 2,706 on Aug 26 last year.
7% of children had received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine
A total of 246,869 children aged between five and 11, or 7% of the group in Malaysia, had received at least the first dose of the Covid-19 vaccine as of Tuesday (Feb 15), under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme for Children (PICKids), according to COVIDNOW.
Launched on Feb 3, PICKids aims to ensure that 3.6 million of all children in the country from the age of five receive at least their first dose by the end of February to ensure the risk of infection in schools can be reduced, thus preventing clusters among school children.
Malaysia is administering the paediatric dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine to children as a two-dose regime with an eight-week interval.
Meanwhile, 13,486,823 people, or 57.3% of the country's adult population, have received their booster dose, and 22,939,377 people, or 97.5% of adults, have completed their two-dose vaccination.
The percentage of the adult population in the country who had received two-dose vaccinations increased to 97.5% from 60.2%, while those with at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine grew to 98.7% from 80.9%.
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