Covid-19: Daily cases hit new high of 17,786 on July 31, with four states reporting four-digit infections

KUALA LUMPUR (July 31): Malaysia reported 17,786 new Covid-19 infections on Saturday (July 31), charting a fresh high from the previous peak of 17,405 cases reported on Wednesday (July 28).

This is also the fourth time the daily Covid-19 cases surpassed 17,000 in the past week — with 17,045 on July 25 (Sunday), 17,405 on July 28, and 17,170 on July 29 (Thursday).

Including today’s cases, the cumulative number of confirmed infections in the country totalled 1.11 million, the Ministry of Health said in a tweet.

The latest cases were detected after screening 153,523 individuals across the country, representing a positivity rate of 11.59%. The number of individuals screened dipped by 3.17% from 158,557 people yesterday (July 30).

Active cases soared further to 189,609, as daily recoveries trailed new infections at 11,718. Total recoveries currently stood at 914,639, which translates into a recovery rate of 82.16%.

Also reported today were 165 Covid-19-related deaths, which raised the nationwide tally for coronavirus-linked deaths to 9,024. Fifty-two deaths were reported in Selangor, followed by 30 in Johor, 23 in Negeri Sembilan, 18 in Kedah, nine each in Sabah and Kuala Lumpur, seven in Penang, four in Melaka, three each in Perak, Terengganu and Sarawak, two in Pahang and one each in Kelantan and Perlis. 

Patients in intensive care now number 1,062 — up from 1,055 yesterday — and 534 need ventilators to breathe.

Selangor still has the highest number of new cases today at 6,400, followed by Kuala Lumpur (1,962), Kedah (1,389), Johor (1,144), Sabah (1,035), Negeri Sembilan (929), Terengganu (883), Perak (775), Penang (713), Melaka (697), Pahang (653), Kelantan (580), Sarawak (485), Putrajaya (116), Perlis (16) and Labuan (9).

Among the latest infections, 98.5% or 17,526 of the cases today were in Categories 1 and 2, while only 1.5% or 260 cases were in Categories 3, 4 and 5, according to the ministry.

The breakdown of new cases are as follows:

*9,377 cases in Category 1 (no symptoms); 92.1% unvaccinated

*8,149 cases in Category 2 (mild symptoms); 72.7% unvaccinated

*165 cases in Category 3 (patients with pneumonia); 64.2% unvaccinated

*62 cases in Category 4 (patients with pneumonia requiring oxygen therapy); 83.2% unvaccinated

*33 cases in Category 5 (critical cases requiring assisted ventilation); 87.9% unvaccinated

RO declines to 1.12 from 1.15 on Friday

The Ministry said the country’s basic reproduction number for the coronavirus, the R0 (pronounced R-Naught), fell to 1.12 on July 30 from 1.15 previously.

Both Terengganu and Kelantan had the highest R0 at 1.29, followed by Sabah (1.25), Kedah (1.22), Perak (1.22), Johor (1.18), Penang (1.18), Putrajaya (1.16), Pahang (1.13), Kuala Lumpur (1.12) and Selangor (1.08).

The R0 projects the average number of people 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.

Only three states charted R0 of less than 1.0 as of yesterday, namely Negeri Sembilan (0.9), Labuan (0.00) and Perlis (0.00).

28 clusters detected

Another 28 Covid-19 clusters were detected today, comprising 13 workplace clusters, 12 community clusters, and one each for high risk group, religious and detention clusters.

To date, 3,679 clusters have been reported nationwide, including 2,573 that have been declared ended, and 1,106 active ones.

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