Covid-19: Malaysia sets twin records of 24,599 daily infections and 393 deaths on Aug 26

KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 26): Malaysia reported 24,599 new daily Covid-19 cases today — the highest number since the onset of the pandemic – pushing the number of active cases up to 265,841, the worst yet.

The latest cases were discovered from testing 160,196 individuals across the country in the past 24 hours, indicating a positivity rate of 15.36%.

Sadly, the country also reported the highest number of deaths today at 393, including 100 brought-in-dead cases, according to Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a statement.

This raised further tally of Covid-19 fatalities to 15,211. The death toll has swelled by 39 times from just 474 as of Jan 1 this year.

The previous record high of daily Covid-19 cases was 23,564 posted on Aug 20, while previous record daily deaths was 360 on Aug 8.

Of the latest fatalities, 125 deaths were reported in Selangor, followed by 61 in Kuala Lumpur, 48 in Johor, 33 in Melaka, 31 in Penang, 26 in Sabah, 20 in Negeri Sembilan, 15 each in Kedah and Perak, nine in Kelantan, eight in Pahang and two in Terengganu.

A total of 990 patients are being treated in intensive care units, of whom 487 need ventilators to breathe.

On the other hand, the country’s daily recoveries also hit a new high of 22,657, despite coming in lower than new infections today.

80.3% of latest cases unvaccinated, partially vaccinated

Among new infections, 19,761 or 80.3% were patients who either had no prior history of vaccination, or had not completed their two-dose regimen, said Dr Noor Hisham.

Those who were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms continued to make up the bulk of new cases, with 23,939 or 97.3% being in Categories 1 (no symptoms) and 2 (mild symptoms).

Those with more severe symptoms totalled 660 cases or 2.7%, spread across Categories 3 (patients with pneumonia), 4 (with pneumonia requiring oxygen therapy) and 5 (critical cases needing assisted ventilation).

Selangor reported the most new Covid-19 infections today at 6,936, followed by Sabah (3,487), Johor (2,785), Penang (2,078) and Sarawak (2,024).

To date, the country has detected a total of 1.64 million Covid-19 infections versus 1.36 million total recoveries.

35 new clusters identified with 1,221 total infections

The ministry also identified 35 new Covid-19 clusters today — comprising 20 workplace clusters, nine community clusters, four high risk group clusters, one education cluster and another detention cluster — with 1,221 total infections.

To date, the nation has identified 4,583 Covid-19 clusters, of which 3,112 have been declared ended, leaving 1,471 active clusters.

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