1,327 new infections

KUALA LUMPUR: The Health Ministry registered 1,327 new Covid19 cases up to noon yesterday, raising the total number of infections in the country to 333,040.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said there were 14,518 active cases.

He said 1,316 of them were local infections (861 Malaysians and 455 foreigners), while 11 others were imported (four Malaysians and seven foreigners).

Selangor, he said, recorded the highest number of new Covid-19 cases with 356, followed by Sarawak (276), Penang (205), Johor (141), and Kuala Lumpur (115).

“There are currently 154 Covid19 cases being treated at the Intensive Care Unit, with 65 of them on ventilator support,” he shared on Facebook.

Dr Noor Hisham said there were 1,247 new recoveries reported yesterday, raising the total number of patients who had recovered from Covid-19 to 312,289, or 95.27 per cent.

He added that four deaths were reported, bringing the death tally to 1,233 (0.37 per cent).

He reminded Malaysians not to let their guard down in their fight against Covid-19 and continue to strictly adhere to the standard operating procedures.

Dr Noor Hisham stressed that restricting interstate travels was vital to curb the virus.

He said 3,170 interstate travelrelated Covid-19 cases (Import B) had been reported from Jan 1 this year to March 21.

Import B cases, he said, referred to cases of Covid-19 infection reported in one state but believed to have originated from other states.

He said the three states with the highest number of Import B cases since January were Kedah with 714 cases (22.5 per cent), Perak with 582 cases (18.4 per cent), and Negri Sembilan with 370 cases (11.7 per cent).

This is followed by Terengganu with 342 cases, Pahang (310), Kelantan (255), Melaka (187), Sarawak (184), Johor (153), Perlis (33), Labuan (18), Penang (12), Kuala Lumpur (four), Selangor (three), and Sabah (three). Putrajaya registered no such cases.

Dr Noor Hisham said Covid-19 clusters that originated from interstate travel also saw an increase since the third wave began on Sept 20 last year.

“An interstate cluster is one that involves an index case or the first case detected of getting Covid-19 infection from another state, and subsequently resulting in local transmission of infection.”

He said following the implementation of the travel ban, the number of new daily cases and clusters involving interstate activities began to show a consistent decline.

The final interstate travel-related cluster, the Tersat cluster in Terengganu, was reported on Jan 30, he said.

“Thirty-one interstate travel related clusters have been reported since Dec 7, 2020 until March 21, this year. Three of the active clusters are the Tembok Mempaga cluster, Tembok Bukit Besi cluster and Pasai cluster.”

Five more Covid-19 clusters were identified in the country, with four linked to workplaces and the other one a community cluster. This brings the total number of Covid-19 clusters to 1,297.

There are 416 active clusters today, with the most cases were reported from Sungai Putus cluster (63), Jalan Salak construction site cluster (62) and DTI Juru cluster (53).

He said 881 clusters had ended, including the 10 clusters, which ended yesterday.