KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 3): Malaysia's new Covid-19 cases climbed above the 17,000-mark again to reach 17,105 on Tuesday, up 8.51% from 15,764 reported the day before, according to Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

Following a surge in today's new cases, active cases increased further to 203,664 — the first time of breaching the 200,000-mark — as daily infections continued outpacing recoveries for 39 straight days.

Meanwhile, 195 Covid-19-related deaths were reported today, bringing total fatalities to 9,598.

Of the latest fatalities, 88 deaths were reported in Selangor, 24 in Johor, 15 in Penang, 13 in Kedah, 12 in Sabah, eight each in Negeri Sembilan, Melaka and Pahang, seven in Terengganu, four in Perak, three in Kelantan, two in Sarawak, one each in Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Perlis. 

Daily recoveries, on the other hand, came in lower than new infections at 12,297. To date, 950,029 have been declared cured from the virus, versus cumulative confirmed Covid-19 infections at 1.16 million.

According to Dr Noor Hisham's statement, 1,066 Covid-19 patients were warded in intensive care units, including 537 of them that require breathing assistance.

A total of 144,857 tests were carried out on Tuesday — indicating a positivity rate of 11.81% — up from 105,785 reported on Monday.

Selangor again topped the list with 5,836 infections — the lowest number of infections recorded in 13 days — down 3.81% from 6,067 recorded on Monday.

Kuala Lumpur came in second, reporting 2,309 new cases, up from 1,536 a day ago.

Other states that recorded more than 1,000 infections today were Johor (1,275), Kedah (1,036) and Sabah (1,010).

These were followed by Perak (967), Kelantan (915), Negeri Sembilan (816), Penang (798), Pahang (628), Melaka (508), Sarawak (494), Terengganu (429), Putrajaya (72), Perlis (seven) and Labuan (five).

In terms of cumulative Covid-19 infections, Selangor led the country with 425,648 cases, followed by Kuala Lumpur (128,958) and Johor (94,225).

According to Dr Noor Hisham, 16,788 or 98.1% of the latest Covid-19 cases were in Categories 1 and 2, while 317 cases or 1.9% were in Categories 3, 4 and 5.

The breakdown of categories and unvaccinated persons is as follows:
• 8,268 cases from Category 1 (no symptoms); 90.5% unvaccinated
• 8,520 cases from Category 2 (mild symptoms); 73.5% unvaccinated
• 135 cases from Category 3 (patients with pneumonia); 64.4% unvaccinated
• 85 cases from Category 4 (pneumonia requiring oxygen therapy); 78.8% unvaccinated
• 97 cases from Category 5 (critical cases requiring assisted ventilation); 91.8% unvaccinated

Dr Noor Hisham said the country's basic reproduction number (R-naught or R0) for Covid-19 infections nationwide declined to 1.07 yesterday (Aug 2) from 1.08 the day before, with Terengganu having the highest R0 at 1.30.

Kelantan came in second at 1.25, followed by Perak at 1.20, Sabah at 1.19, and Kedah at 1.18.

The R0 projects the average number of people that each new Covid-19 patient will infect, or what is termed the effective reproduction number. An R0 of less than 1.0 means the infection is not spreading.

A total of 468,526 doses of Covid-19 vaccine were given on Monday (Aug 2), the second consecutive day the country delivered over 400,000 jabs compared with 500,000 doses previously.

The latest figure was down 2.42% from 480,122 doses administered the day before.

Of the 468,526 doses delivered nationwide, 223,479 individuals received their first dose while the remaining 245,047 received their second jab, according to the Special Committee for Ensuring Access to Covid-19 Vaccine Supply (JKJAV), citing data from the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF).

These brought the total Covid-19 vaccine doses administered so far in Malaysia to 21.67 million.

A total of 14.47 million people or 44.3% of the nation's population have received their first dose at least, including 7.2 million or 22% who have been fully inoculated.