KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 20 — Public health authorities recorded 28,825 more new Covid-19 positive cases in just the last 24 hours, the highest to date since the start of the pandemic.
Deaths caused by the coronavirus also continued to climb, at 34 within the same period, a marked increase from a few weeks earlier when the mortality rate was mostly in the single digit.
A dozen of the patients were brought-in dead, the Ministry of Health’s CovidNow website reported. The ministry had reported 36 deaths yesterday.
This means active cases, or cases still under treatment, are now at a staggering 243,342, an increase of 10,277. The cumulative number of positive cases is now 3,173,908.
Most states are showing a marked increase in cases based on the seven-day average data provided by CovidNow.
Cases in Selangor, the country’s industrial and commercial epicenter, rose to 5,561 or a 51 per cent jump. Sabah came in second at 4,729 or a 77 per cent spike in the last seven days.
Johor, Kelantan, Penang, Kedah, Negri Sembilan, Pahang, and Terengganu all registered a four-digit increase in new cases per seven-day average.
Johor and Kedah were the two top highest among them, recording 2,699 and 2,628 cases respectively.
Mortality rate trend
Kedah recorded the highest Covid-19 related deaths based on a 14-day average trend, jumping 241 per cent from the previous period.
Sabah came in second highest, recording a 213 per cent jump in the number of deaths in the last 14 days.
The Klang Valley recorded a 142 per cent spike in 14-day average death trend from the previous period.
Hospitalisation
Hospital bed utilisation in the Klang Valley saw a 484 per cent increase based on a seven-day average trend, but still at just half of total capacity.
But Johor, Kedah, Melaka, Negri Sembilan, Pahang, Pulau Pinang, and Terengganu are seeing bed usage rising in the same period, all registering a spike of above 70 per cent with Melaka the highest, at 86 per cent.
Policymakers will look carefully at the rate of hospitalisation in the next few days amid concern over the Omicron variant of the coronavirus, which experts said is fuelling the recent wave of new infections.
Government leaders have said they would try to avoid enforcing a lockdown even as cases surged sharply.
The country’s vaccination rate now covers nearly all its adults although booster shots administration is still less than half of total population.
* A previous version of this story contained an error which has since been corrected.
