KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 8 — New Covid-19 cases reported in Malaysia today totalled 18,688, slightly less than the 19,257 recorded yesterday.
About 45 per cent of today’s 18,688 new cases were detected in Selangor (6,565) and Kuala Lumpur (1,883). Combined, they make up 8,448 cases in total.
Other states that recorded more than 1,000 cases each are Kedah (1,610), Sabah (1,379), Johor (1,308) and Negri Sembilan (1,140).
The others are Kelantan at 870 new cases recorded today, followed by Perak (861), Penang (694), Pahang (602), Terengganu (598), Sarawak (581), Melaka (526), Putrajaya (63), with single-digit cases being recorded only in Perlis (six) and Labuan (two).
With the addition of 18,688 new cases, this brings Malaysia’s cumulative total of Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began to 1,262,540 or 1.26 million cases.
Today’s new daily Covid-19 cases of 18,688 also comes after new historic highs were continuously recorded in Malaysia over three consecutive days (August 4 at 19,819 cases, August 5 at 20,596 cases and finally August 6 at 20,889 new cases which is currently the highest ever in a day), before falling to yesterday’s (August 7) lower figure of 19,257 new cases.
Subsequently, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah shared that 18,287 or 97.9 per cent of today’s new Covid-19 cases are currently in Category 1 and Category 2, or asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients.
The remaining 401 cases or 2.1 per cent were in the more severe categories of Category 3 to Category 5.
These categories are based on the patients’ situation when they were just diagnosed, and their health condition could either stay the same throughout their infection period or improve or deteriorate to other categories.
As a whole, only 4,460 or 23.9 per cent of today’s overall 18,688 new Covid-19 cases had a history of receiving Covid-19 vaccination. It was not further detailed into those who had received single and double doses of vaccine.
The Rt value or infectivity rate based on Covid-19 cases reported on August 7 was the highest in Perlis at 1.47, while the two other locations that are already in Phase Three of the National Recovery Plan had Rt values at 1.12 for Sarawak and zero for Labuan.
As for states currently in Phase Two, their Rt values are at 1.25 (Kelantan), 1.18 (Sabah, Penang), 1.17 (Perak, Terengganu), and 1.11 (Pahang).
The Phase One locations had Rt values of 1.15 (Kedah), 1.13 (Johor), 1.07 (Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya), 1.05 (Selangor), and 1.02 (Negri Sembilan, Melaka). The national Rt is 1.08.
A total of 39 new Covid-19 clusters were recorded today, namely 18 involving the workplace, 15 involving the community, two involving detention centres in Perak and Pahang, two high-risk groups involving care centres with the index cases being aged 75 (for the cluster in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur) and aged 85 (Kuching, Sarawak), one religious-linked cluster and one higher education-linked cluster at Jalan Kampung Demit in Kota Baru, Kelantan.
A total of 1,172 Covid-19 cases that were detected were part of these 39 new clusters.
The workplace clusters included those linked to six factories, five construction sites, two supermarkets, two service companies, one market and one restaurant.
The community clusters included those linked to a two-day social event on July 24 and July 25 at Kampung Gajah Mati in Jerantut, Pahang with 13 cases; house visits on July 20 at Felda Seroja Jengka 18 in Maran, Pahang in conjunction with festive celebrations at 34 cases; house visits at Kampung Gok Kapor in Kota Baru, Kelantan with 19 cases.
As for the religious cluster, it involved those who had attended a social activity in conjunction with a festive celebration at Kampung Derang in Kota Setar, Kedah with 38 cases from this cluster.
Some of these clusters are repeat clusters, with the Jalan Rusa 2 cluster (28 cases) being the second time workers of a construction site at Jalan Tun Razak, Kuala Lumpur were part of a cluster.
Also having a cluster for the second time are workers of an oil and gas exploration company in Kemaman, Terengganu with 126 cases.
