Malaysia reports 20,837 new Covid-19 cases on Aug 24

KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 24): New Covid-19 cases topped the 20,000 level again, with 20,837 infections reported in the 24 hours as of noon today, compared with 17,672 yesterday.

This raised total cases in the country to date to 1,59 million, Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement. 

Selangor continued to record the highest number of new infections with 4,645, followed by Sabah (3,376) and Penang (2,054).

Other states that reported four-digit new cases are Kedah (1,772), Johor (1,743), Sarawak (1,543), Kelantan (1,422), Kuala Lumpur (1,284) and Perak (1,242).

A total of 211 pandemic-related deaths were reported in the 24 hours as of noon today, bringing the total death toll to 14,553. 

Of the latest fatalities, 41 were reported in Johor, 36 in Selangor, 32 in Kedah, 23 in Penang, 17 in Sabah, 16 in Perak, 12 in Negeri Sembilan, 10 in Kuala Lumpur, nine in Pahang, five in Terengganu, three each in Kelantan and Melaka, and two each in Sarawak and Perlis. 

Daily recoveries came in lower than new infections at 18,613. To date, a total of 1.32 million individuals have been declared cured from the virus.

Active cases stand at 262,713

Active cases rose to 262,713, with 1,063 patients warded in the intensive care unit, including 511 on ventilators.

Of the latest infections, 16,949 or 81.3% were patients who either had no prior history of vaccination or had not completed their two-dose regimen, said Dr Noor Hisham.

Meanwhile, the asymptomatic or those with mild symptoms continued to make up the bulk of new cases, with 20,479 or 98.3% being in Categories 1 (no symptoms) or 2 (mild symptoms).

Those with more severe symptoms totalled 358 or 1.7%, spread across Categories 3 (patients with pneumonia), 4 (with pneumonia requiring oxygen therapy) and 5 (critical cases needing assisted ventilation).

The number of Covid-19 tests carried out increased to 148,208, from yesterday’s 118,158,with a positivity rate of 14.06%.

R0 declines to 1.01 on Aug 23

Dr Noor Hisham said the country's basic reproduction number (R-naught or R0) for Covid-19 infections nationwide declined to 1.01 yesterday (Aug 23) from 1.03 the day before, with Sarawak having the highest R0 at 1.26.

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.

34 new clusters detected, 22 from workplace

Dr Noor Hisham said 34 new clusters were identified in the 24 hours as of noon today, including 22 from the workplace. The remainder were community clusters, detention centre clusters and high risk clusters.

The country has reported 4,506 Covid-19 clusters so far, including 3,060 that have been declared ended — leaving 1,446 active clusters.

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