Malaysia hits new high of 22,242 Covid-19 cases today

KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 18 — Malaysia notched another new Covid-19 record with 22,242 new cases today.

The last record was 21,668 cases on August 11.

This brings the total number of Covid-19 cases recorded in the country to 1,466,512.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that Selangor maintains hold on the top spot for highest number of cases detected per state, at 6,858.

Eight other states also reported more than 1,000 Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours. They are Sabah (2,413), Penang (1,867), Kedah (1,852), Kuala Lumpur (1,587), Johor (1,477), Sarawak (1,403), Kelantan (1,351) and Perak (1,036).

Remaining states recording new cases are Pahang (675), Melaka (579), Negri Sembilan (577), Terengganu (487), Perlis (50), Putrajaya (25) and Labuan (five).

“Of the 22,242 new cases today, only four were imported into the country from overseas while the remaining were locally transmitted,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham shared that 430 or 1.9 per cent of those found positive today are in categories 3, 4 and 5, while 21,812 or 98.1 per cent are in categories 1 and 2.

He added that 83.8 per cent or 18,631 cases also involved those who have only either gotten one Covid-19 vaccine dose or none at all.

However, the nationwide rate of infection has dropped today, currently standing at 1.04 from yesterday’s 1.05. Perlis still holds the highest rate of infection by state at 1.29, followed by Sarawak (1.19) and Sabah (1.17).

Another 225 deaths were also recorded in the last 24 hours, involving 198 locals and 27 foreigners, bringing the total number of deaths from the deadly disease to 13,302 or 0.91 per cent.

He added that of the 225 deaths, 35 of them were brought-in-dead (BID), involving 27 locals and eight foreigners.

“Of the deaths today, 74 of them were recorded from Selangor, 37 from Johor, 24 from Kuala Lumpur, 18 from Sabah, 15 from Penang, 14 from Kedah, nine from Perak, eight from Negri Sembilan, seven from Melaka, six each from Kelantan and Pahang, five from Terengganu and two from Sarawak,” said Dr Noor Hisham.

He also shared that there are currently 1,060 Covid-19 patients being treated in intensive care units (ICU), with 540 of them needing ventilators.

On Covid-19 clusters, Dr Noor Hisham shared that 49 new clusters were discovered in the country in the last 24 hours, bringing the number of active clusters in Malaysia currently to 1,386.

He said that 30 of the 49 new clusters involve workplaces, 13 from community transmissions, five involving high risk groups and one involving a holding facility.

“In total, 2,913 clusters have been reported since the beginning of the second phase of the third wave on March 28 (13th Epidemiological Week).

“Of these, 1,549 clusters (53.2 per cent) were workplace clusters and 880 clusters (30.2 per cent) were community clusters,” Dr Noor Hisham said.

He added that among workplace clusters, the three sub clusters recording the highest numbers are from the manufacturing sector (780 clusters), the service sector (260 clusters) and the construction sector (181 clusters).

Dr Noor Hisham also shared that there have been 19,680 people who have recovered from Covid-19 today, bringing the total number of recoveries in the country to 1,198,726 or 81.7 per cent.