Covid-19: Malaysia's July 12 new cases fall to 8,574, but actives breach 90,000 mark

KUALA LUMPUR (July 12): Malaysia's new Covid-19 cases fell to 8,574 today, after staying above the 9,000 level for the past three days.

The decline came following a sharp drop in infections in Kuala Lumpur to 609 cases from 1,247 the day before, when Covid-19 infections nationwide came in at 9,105.

Selangor — the worst-hit state — also saw new cases decline to 4,308 from 4,682 yesterday. Negeri Sembilan recorded 794 cases, Kedah reported 415 cases, and Johor posted 407 infections, according to Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a statement.

Active cases, which carry high transmission risks, breached the 90,000 mark for the first time at 91,272 — the worst level since the pandemic began last year — as daily infections continued to outnumber recoveries.

Consequently, the number of patients in intensive care units climbed to its highest level with 964, of whom 452 needed ventilators to breathe.

Another 102 Covid-19-related deaths were also recorded — comprising 46 deaths in Selangor, 16 in Kuala Lumpur, 14 in Negeri Sembilan, seven in Pahang, six in Johor, three in Kedah, three in Melaka, two in Sabah, two in Penang, and one each in Kelantan, Perak, and Sarawak.

These brought the tally of fatalities linked to the coronavirus to 6,260 from 5,254 as at July 1.

Meanwhile, 5,041 patients were discharged today, bringing the total recoveries so far to 747,338 or 88.5% of overall infections, which now stand at 844,870.

In terms of Covid-19 testing, the Health Ministry said 89,682 individuals across the nation were tested in the last 24 hours, from which the 8,574 new infections were found. Among the new infections, 8,534 were locally transmitted cases while 40 were imported cases.

In contrast, 97,498 individuals were tested on Sunday, of whom 9,105 were positive. Meanwhile, 105,937 were tested last Saturday, from which 9,353 positive cases were detected.

R0 stands at 1.15

Malaysia's basic reproduction number (R-naught or R0) for Covid-19 infections nationwide as of July 11 stood at 1.15, according to Dr Noor Hisham.

The R0/Rt data projects the average number of people whom each new Covid-19 patient will infect. Rt means the effective reproduction number. An Rt of less than 1.0 means the infection is not spreading.

Putrajaya recorded the highest R0 at 1.31, followed by Selangor (1.18), Kuala Lumpur (1.17) and Kedah (1.17).

16 more clusters detected

The Health Ministry reported 16 new Covid-19 clusters, bringing the number of active clusters in the country to 865.

Eight of the new clusters were community related, five were workplace clusters and the remaining three were linked to high-risk groups.

To date, the ministry has identified 3,093 clusters, with 2,228 having been declared ended.

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