62 new virus cases take total tally to 5 digits

The cumulative number of Covid-19 cases in Malaysia rose to five digits today, reaching 10,031 with the addition of 62 new cases.

Of the 62 new cases, 61 were local transmissions involving 41 Malaysians and 20 foreigners while the remaining import case was that of a Malaysian returning from India.

In a press conference today, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said 59 of the new cases were recorded in Sabah, 48 of which were from the Benteng LD cluster. Of these, 20 were foreigners.

The other 11 cases in Sabah were detected through the screening of health workers at the Lahad Datu hospital (four cases), at international entry points from the peninsula (three cases), at the Lahad Datu health clinic (two cases) and at the Pulau and Sandakan prison clusters (one each).

“Kedah also recorded one case from the Sungai cluster while Penang had one case from the close contact screening of a family member of cases 9,397 and 9,459,” he said.

Noor Hisham said 26 recoveries were recorded today, raising the cumulative number of recoveries to 9,235 cases or 92.1% of total cases.

No new deaths were reported today, leaving the death toll unchanged at 128.

“To date, 15 cases are under treatment in intensive care, with three of them requiring respiratory assistance,” Noor Hisham added.

He said active cases continued to increase on a daily basis while the number of positive cases treated in the intensive care unit was rising as well.

If the situation continued, he said, health facilities in the country would be overwhelmed again.

To prevent such a situation from recurring, he urged everyone to play their role and comply with the SOPs and advice issued by the government.