KUALA LUMPUR, April 18 — Continuing its good run since phase 3 of the movement control order (MCO) began earlier this week, five states and one Federal Territory in the country have maintained their status quo in terms of recorded Covid-19 cases, the latest Health Ministry data released today showed.

According to the ministry’s latest data, the five Northern peninsula states of Penang, Kedah, Kelantan, Terengganu and Perlis, as well as the Federal Territory of Putrajaya, did not record any increase of Covid-19 cases over the past 24 hours.

The minimal increases in the different states in Malaysia match the relatively low number of new Covid-19 cases recorded in the country yesterday at 69 new cases.

In contrast, Kuala Lumpur recorded the highest increase of Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours, from 952 cases on April 16 to 971 cases on April 17, an increase of 19 cases.

Minimal increase in cases

While eight states and two Federal Territories initially had a zero increase of new cases on April 16, three states and one Federal Territory recorded marginal increases.

States of Melaka, Pahang and Perak recorded only one new case each to increase their tally to 147 cases, 262 cases and 251 cases respectively, while the Federal Territory of Labuan also increased by one case to 16 cases.

Other states recording minimal increase were Johor and Selangor after both increased their tally by nine cases to 623 cases and 1,338 cases respectively, while Sabah increased its tally by five cases to 293 cases on April 17.

Only Sarawak, Negri Sembilan and Kuala Lumpur recorded a double-digit increase in cases at 10, 13 and 19 respectively.

Johor’s Kulai district was newly categorised as a red zone after the total number of positive Covid-19 cases detected up to April 17 rose to 41.

On April 16, Kulai had been an orange zone with 38 cases, with a difference of three cases in the past 24 hours.

This also meant that Kulai is the fifth district in Johor to be categorised as a red zone, leaving six other districts in either orange or yellow zones.

In Johor itself, the top hotspot is Kluang with 221 cases recorded to date.

It is also where first the enhanced movement control order (EMCO) was imposed on two areas within Simpang Renggam — Bandar Baharu Dato’ Ibrahim Majid and Kampung Dato’ Ibrahim Majid — after a majority of Kluang’s cases were detected in both villages.

Malaysia has 29 red zones recorded to date. Of the total red zones, four are located in Sabah and Sarawak while the remaining 24 are districts in the peninsula.

Under the Health Ministry’s classification, districts where at least 41 Covid-19 cases have been recorded fall under the category of red zones, or the most severe category.

The country’s top red zone for 14 consecutive days is the Lembah Pantai district in Kuala Lumpur, with a total tally of 604 Covid-19 cases as of April 17.

The Lembah Pantai district’s total cumulative tally had steadily increased over the past 14 days as the nationwide top spot at 322 cases (April 3), 367 cases (April 4), 376 cases (April 5), 386 cases (April 6), 412 cases (April 7), 417 cases (April 8), 424 cases (April 9), 427 cases (April 10), 459 (April 11), 496 (April 12), 515 cases (April 13), 572 cases (April 14), 577 cases (April 15) and 592 (April 16).

An important point to note for those looking at the Lembah Pantai district figures is that it covers the three parliamentary constituencies of Seputeh, Bukit Bintang and Lembah Pantai, with the latest available breakdown as of April 8 from the Health Department of Federal Territory Kuala Lumpur & Putrajaya showing that a substantial number of the cases in the Lembah Pantai district then were recorded in the Seputeh constituency.

As of April 13, no green zones have been lost, with the number of districts with zero Covid 19-cases reported so far still standing at 28 districts in five states throughout the country.

The remaining 28 green zones are spread across three districts in three peninsula states of Kedah, Kelantan and Terengganu while the remaining 25 zones are spread across eight districts in Sabah and 17 districts in Sarawak.

Originally, however, in the first batch of data released by the Health Ministry, Malaysia had a total of 39 districts in seven states on March 25 that had zero Covid-19 cases.

Health Director-General Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah had expressed hope that green zones could be identified within 14 days regardless of whether an area is a village, sub-district, district or an entire state, and stressed the importance of protecting the status of such areas as green zones once identified.

As of April 17, the total cumulative tally of Covid-19 cases in Malaysia is 5,251, and the death toll stands at 86.