KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 12 — The country recorded 19,198 Covid-19 infection cases in the last 24 hours with Sarawak taking the top spot again, with 5,291 cases, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah tweeted.
Selangor followed suit with 2,347 cases, Johor (2,110), Sabah (1,717), Kelantan (1,435), Penang (1,309) and Kedah (1,256).
Perak recorded 1,118 cases, Terengganu (930), Pahang (584), Melaka (340), Negri Sembilan (283), Perlis (67), Putrajaya (32) and the Federal Territory of Labuan recorded three cases.
Dr Noor Hisham said that 1,298 cases required treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), out of which 960 patients are Covid-19 positive, 338 are suspected to be positive, probable and under investigation.
He added that 744 cases meanwhile required ventilators, with 444 cases confirmed to be Covid-19 positive and 300 others are suspected to be Covid-19 positive, probable and under investigation.
“Of the 19,198 daily cases reported today, 253 cases (1.3 per cent) are categories 3, 4 and 5 and another 18,945 cases (98.7 per cent) are from categories 1 and 2,” Dr Noor Hisham said, adding that 34 new clusters were registered today.
He also announced that 20,908 Covid-19 recoveries were registered today.
The Borneo Post reported the Sarawak State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) as saying that a total of 99.94 per cent of Sarawak’s 5,291 new Covid-19 cases today consisted of Category 1 and 2 patients, who are considered asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic respectively.
The SDMC was also reported as saying that only three cases were in Category 3, 4 and 5.
The report went on to say that Sarawak’s latest figure marked the first time that the state’s daily Covid-19 cases had breached the 5,000 mark, with the cumulative number of cases now at 156,798.
Sarawak Health Department director Datuk Dr Mohamed Sapian Mohamed had earlier said that the high volume of samples collected for Covid-19 testing has burdened existing laboratories’ capacity, resulting in a longer turnaround time for results.
The Borneo Post reported him as saying that this created a backlog, resulting in the results of some samples to only be known after five days.
“Despite outsourcing for testing some samples, the high volume of samples collected has caused a burden on the capacity of existing laboratories resulting in the turnaround time for results to be lengthened.
“As a result of the high volume of samples collected, this has created a backlog which caused the laboratory results of some samples to be known only after five days,” Dr Mohamed Sapian said in a statement today.
“Despite the delay in obtaining results for the samples collected, all contacts with risk have been given ‘Home Surveillance Order’ to prevent the spread of the virus in the community,” he reportedly said.
