Covid-19: New cases in Malaysia drop to 19,740 on Aug 16 after staying above 20,000 for five straight days

KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 16): The number of new Covid-19 infections in Malaysia dropped to 19,740 today after staying above the 20,000 mark for five straight days.

The latest cases were discovered from 130,113 people tested nationwide, indicating a positivity rate of 15.17%, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

Another 274 fatalities — 211 Malaysians and 63 foreigners — were reported in the 24 hours as of noon today, with 77 of the deaths occurring before reaching the hospital.

These lifted total deaths linked to the coronavirus to 12,784, compared with only 5,254 as at July 1, Dr Noor Hisham said in a statement.

Of the latest deaths, 100 were reported in Selangor, 39 in Kuala Lumpur, 31 in Johor, 21 in Kedah, 19 in Penang, 16 in Melaka, 15 in Sabah, 10 in Perak, nine in Kelantan, five each in Sarawak and Negeri Sembilan, three in Terengganu and one in Pahang.

Dr Noor Hisham said active cases stayed above the 200,000 mark for the second consecutive week at 249,277 today — up from 247,261 yesterday as new recoveries came in lower than new infections at 17,450.

These raised total recoveries to 1.16 million, from 1.42 million cumulative infections detected so far.

85.1% of new cases unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated

Dr Noor Hisham said 16,805 cases or 85.1% of today's Covid-19 cases comprised patients who were unvaccinated or have not yet completed their second dose of the vaccination.

He also noted that 19,442 or 98.5% of the latest cases were in Categories 1 (no symptoms) and 2 (mild symptoms), while 298 cases or 1.5% were in Categories 3 (patients with pneumonia), 4 (with pneumonia requiring oxygen therapy) and 5 (critical cases needing assisted ventilation).

A total of 1,047 patients are being treated in intensive care units, including 520 on ventilators.

Selangor still topped the list with most Covid-19 infections at 5,706, followed by Sabah (1,728), Kedah (1,592), Sarawak (1,566), and Johor (1,510).

These were followed by Kuala Lumpur (1,360), Penang (1,251), Kelantan (1,227), Melaka (1,120), Perak (938), Terengganu (688), Pahang (646), Negeri Sembilan (343), Putrajaya (43), Perlis (20) and Labuan (two).

35 new clusters identified

The Health Ministry detected 35 more Covid-19 clusters in the 24 hours as of noon, comprising 21 workplace clusters, 11 community clusters, two high-risk group clusters and one religious cluster, with a total of 903 infections.

To date, a total of 4,218 clusters have been reported in the country, including 2,879 that have been declared ended.

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