Another 5,298 Covid-19 cases added to Malaysia’s tally

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 31 — Malaysia’s dire Covid-19 situation continued today, with health authorities reporting 5,298 more infections along with another 14 deaths.

Today’s reported cases were marginally lower than the 5,728 yesterday.

According to the Health Ministry, Selangor and Johor both contributed new cases in the four-digit range.

“Today’s deaths involve 12 cases in Selangor and one each in Sarawak and Kuala Lumpur. All of the deaths today involve citizens,” Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement.

The youngest deceased was a 40-year-old woman who died at Hospital Selayang while the oldest was an 83-year-old man who died at Hospital Sungai Buloh.

All but one of the deceased had pre-existing medical conditions, with the sole exception listed as a dementia patient.

The number of seriously ill patients requiring ventilators also rose by seven since yesterday to reach 127 although patients requiring intensive care declined from 319 yesterday to 313 today; however, it is unclear if the decline in intensive care patients was due to death or discharge.

While the ministry also reported 4,522 full recoveries, the shortfall to new infections meant a net gain of 776 active patients that resulted in a total of 48,150 cases that are active and infectious.

Today was also the fifth consecutive day that new infections have outpaced new recoveries.

All but three of the new cases disclosed today were local transmissions. Cumulatively, Malaysia is now at 214,959 Covid-19 cases.

Selangor alone accounted for nearly half of the cases, with the heart of the country’s industry reporting 2,460 more infections over the last 24 hours.

Johor came in at 1,020 new cases, ahead of Kuala Lumpur (783), Sabah (298), Melaka (153) and Sarawak (135).

No state in the country was free of new infections, with the closest being Perlis that registered five new cases.

The Health Ministry also reported 10 new clusters today, of which four were in Johor, two each in Selangor and Perak, and one each in KL, Melaka and Perak.

Of the 817 clusters detected to date, 392 are considered active including 83 that contributed new cases over the last day.