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KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 18): Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 cases jumped to a new high of 22,242 today after declining to below the 20,000 mark for two straight days, according to Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a statement.
The previous record high daily cases of 21,668 was posted on Aug 12. This is the first time daily cases topped 22,000, and the sixth time that they passed 20,000.
Active cases which carry high transmission risks rose further to 254,484 — up 24.95% from 203,664 just two weeks ago on Aug 3 — as new recoveries of 19,680 lagged behind new infections.
Also reported today were 225 fatalities linked to the coronavirus — involving 198 Malaysians and 27 foreigners — which raised the country's Covid-19 death toll to 13,302.
Of the latest fatalities, 74 deaths were reported in Selangor, 37 in Johor, 24 in Kuala Lumpur, 18 in Sabah, 15 in Penang, 14 in Kedah, nine in Perak, eight in Negeri Sembilan, seven in Melaka, six each in Kelantan and Pahang, five in Terengganu and two in Sarawak.
Meanwhile, 35 of the new fatalities today were brought in dead upon reaching the hospital. They involved 27 Malaysians and eight foreigners.
The number of patients in intensive care units inched up to 1,060 from 1,054 previously, of whom 540 need ventilators to breathe.
83.8% of latest cases unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated
Dr Noor Hisham said 18,631 cases or 83.8% of today's Covid-19 cases comprised patients who were unvaccinated or have not yet completed their second dose of the vaccination.
He also said that 21,812 or 98.1% of the latest cases were in Categories 1 (no symptoms) and 2 (mild symptoms), while 430 cases or 1.9% were in Categories 3 (patients with pneumonia), 4 (with pneumonia requiring oxygen therapy) and 5 (critical cases needing assisted ventilation).
A total of 49 new clusters were also reported, with 1,833 total infections. They comprised 30 workplace clusters, 13 community clusters, five high-risk group clusters and one detention cluster. The country has reported 4,306 clusters so far, including 2,920 that have ended.
Malaysia has detected 1.47 million total Covid-19 infections since the pandemic began in late January last year, of which 1.2 million have recovered.