Malaysia records highest daily fatalities at 207 but new cases drop to 14,516 on July 26

KUALA LUMPUR (July 26): Malaysia recorded the highest number of daily fatalities at 207 on Monday, pushing the national death toll linked to the coronavirus to 8,201. 

The previous record high number of daily fatalities was 199 on July 21.

Of the latest fatalities, 57 deaths were reported in Selangor, 52 in Kuala Lumpur, 24 in Johor, 19 in Kedah, 18 in Melaka, 14 in Negeri Sembilan, seven in Pahang, six in Sabah, five in Perak, three in Penang and two in Terengganu.

In contrast, daily Covid-19 cases dropped to 14,516 from an all-time high of 17,045 the day before, according to Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

However, despite the fall in new infections, active cases continue to climb for one straight month to 165,840 – the worst level since the pandemic began in January last year.

Sadly, the number of patients in intensive care units surged to 1,009, of whom 524 of them needed ventilators to breathe.

Selangor remains the state with the highest number of infections today at 6,508, followed by Johor (1,449), Kuala Lumpur (1,425) and Kedah (1,160).

Daily recoveries, on the other hand, came in lower than new infections at 9,372. Total recoveries now stand at 853,913 versus total Covid-19 infections at 1,027,954.

92% of Covid-19 cases have not been vaccinated

Overall, 92% or majority of the Covid-19 cases have no history of vaccination, according to Dr Noor Hisham.

Of the new infections, 7,216 cases were classified as Category 1. Of this, 95.6% cases were unvaccinated.

Dr Noor Hisham said in a statement that 7,045 cases came from Category 2, of which 87.6% of cases were unvaccinated.

For Category 3, 83 cases were detected, of which 67.5% were unvaccinated; while 77 cases detected from Category 4 (85.7% were unvaccinated).

Meanwhile for Category 5, 95 cases were identified, of which 97.9% of cases were unvaccinated.

The Health Ministry has classified Category 1 as patients with no symptoms, Category 2 as patients with mild symptoms, Category 3 (pneumonia), Category 4 as cases with pneumonia requiring oxygen therapy, and Category 5 as critical cases requiring assisted ventilation. 

R0 rises to 1.15

According to Dr Noor Hisham, the country's basic reproduction number (R-naught or R0) for Covid-19 infections nationwide rose to 1.15 on July 25, from 1.11 the day before, with Terengganu having the highest R0 at 1.36.

Kedah came in second at 1.26, followed by Sabah (1.24), Penang (1.23), Kelantan (1.22), Johor (1.20), Perak (1.19), Selangor (1.16), Pahang (1.13) and Kuala Lumpur (1.13).

The R0 projects the average number of people that each new Covid-19 patient will infect, or what is termed the effective reproduction number. An R0 of less than 1.0 means the infection is not spreading.

33 clusters detected; 21 involving workplaces

The Health Ministry also identified 33 new Covid-19 clusters, comprising 21 workplace clusters, 10 community clusters and two education clusters.

This brought active clusters so far to 1,005.

To date, a total of 3,485 clusters have been detected across the country, while 2,480 have been declared ended.

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