KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 18 (NNN-BERNAMA) — The number of new COVID-19 cases in Malaysia jumped to 869 on Saturday, namely, the highest figure ever recorded since the pandemic afflicted the country.
Four deaths were reported as of 12 noon Saturday, making the total number of cumulative deaths in Malaysia due to the plague currently at 180 cases.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that, with the new development, the total number of cases in Malaysia had now surpassed the 19,000 figure, namely, 19,627 cases, with active infectious cases increasing to 6,886.
‘’All the new cases today are local infections involving 745 citizens and 124 non-citizens with Sabah still recording the highest new infections, namely, 451 cases (51.9 per cent),’’ he told a virtual media conference aired in the Facebook of the Ministry of Health (MOH) Saturday.
Dr Noor Hisham said, overall, 224 cases (25.8 per cent) were from the Tembok Cluster, Remand Prison Cluster and the Seberang Perai Prison Cluster which were isolated cases in prisons and did not infect society.
A total of 20.3 per cent involved cases in the Klang Valley, namely, Selangor (159 cases), Kuala Lumpur Federal Territory (15 cases) and Putrajaya (two cases).
Detailing the number of cases in other states, Dr Noor Hisham said Penang recorded 189 cases, Kedah (38), Sarawak (four), Perak (four), Terengganu (three), Johor (two), Negeri Sembilan (one) and Melaka (one).
‘’From the total cases today, four cases were those returning from Sabah, making the number of cases reportedly having a history of visits to Sabah since Sept 20, 2020 at 441 cases,’’ he said.
MOH had also identified five new COVID-19 clusters, making the number of active clusters, to date, at 81.
He said 302 cases of COVID-19 had recovered today, making the total cumulative number of cases which had fully recovered at 12,561 cases.
Until to date, 91 positive COVID-19 cases were being treated at the Intensive Care Units (ICU), with 30 cases needing respiratory aid.
— NNN-BERNAMA