Covid-19: Malaysia records five new positive cases

KUCHING: Malaysia recorded five new positive Covid-19 cases yesterday, bringing the country’s number of infected cases to 8,668, said Ministry of Health (MoH) director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said three of the new positive cases were imported cases involving two Malaysians and a non-Malaysian, while two cases were local transmissions involving Malaysians.

“There are currently 71 active cases in the country; they have been isolated and are being treated in hospitals.

“Two positive cases are also being treated in the intensive care unit (ICU) and they both require respiratory assistance,” he spoke during the ministry’s Covid-19 press conference in Putrajaya.

Dr Noor Hisham also said no new Covid-19 death was reported yesterday, leaving the country’s death toll from the infectious disease to remain unchanged at 121.

On the number of recoveries, he said 11 patients had recovered and were discharged from hospital wards yesterday.

“This brings the total number of recoveries to 8,476, which accounts for 97.8 per cent of the total number of cases,” he said.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said if Malaysia did not record any increase in the daily Covid-19 cases, this would be a good sign for the country as the number of active cases would dwindle.

“This means that the infectivity of such patient is less in our community.

“We do know the virus is in the community, so what’s important is to break further transmissions of Covid-19,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham also encouraged the public to continue adhering to the standard operating procedures (SOP) set by the MoH.

“Social compliance is important, but social responsibility and discipline are equally important to make sure that we can, in this country, break the chain of Covid-19 transmissions even though we do not have the vaccine in place.”

The MoH director-general also said it would not be impossible for Malaysia to bring down the number of Covid-19 cases, but this would depend on the people’s compliance with the SOP.

“We have seen in other countries how they managed to control (the number of Covid-19 cases).

“But the moment they eased down, relaxed and did not comply with the SOP, certainly the cases could actually come back. So it’s important for all of us to comply with the SOP,” said Dr Noor Hisham.