COVID SPIKE WITH 2,124 CASES
All but one of the newly-infected Covid-19 cases were local transmissions, says ministry
ANOTHER 2,124 new Covid-19 cases were detected on Thursday, marking an upward trend of infections over the past three days.
The number had increased from 1,469 on May 17 to 2,017 on May 18.
The fresh cases yesterday brought the cumulative count to 4,485,419 since the pandemic began in 2020.
All but one of the newly infected cases were local transmissions, according to data in the Health Ministry’s CovidNow portal.
The ministry’s GitHub data repository showed that the three states with the highest cases were Selangor (892), Kuala Lumpur (411) and Perak (125).
However, there were slightly more recoveries at 2,303 cases, while three deaths were reported, including two brought-in-dead patients.
There were 29,789 active cases in the country where 28,569 cases were under home quarantine, 1,165 admitted to hospitals and 20 were placed at quarantine and low-risk treatment centres.
Another 35 cases were placed in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU).
The nationwide Covid-19 ICU utilisation percentage stood at 56.8 per cent, with Selangor’s usage being the highest at 77.9 per cent, followed by Melaka (73.9 per cent) and Kedah (68.5 per cent).
Hospitals in the Klang Valley recorded the highest number of cases in the ICU with 17.
There were 482 new Covid-19 hospital admissions while 58,628 tests that were conducted had returned with a positive rate of 5.4 per cent.
No new Covid-19 clusters were identified yesterday. To date, there were 39 active ones nationwide.
Meanwhile, the inoculation of children against Covid-19, which began on Feb 3, had successfully brought down infections among those aged 5 to 11 during the Omicron wave.
Institute for Clinical Research director Dr Kalai Peariasamy yesterday shared a graph on his Twitter handle, which showed that cases involving the age group had peaked at the end of February before steadily dropping throughout March, April and this month.
“Full vaccination helps reduce the risk of serious Covid-19 infection and severe outcomes in children,” Dr Kalai wrote.
The Health Ministry’s CovidNow portal showed that up to yesterday, 46.7 per cent of children or 1,657,180 had received the first dose of the vaccine under the Covid-19 National Immunisation Programme for Children (PICKids).
Up to 30.6 per cent of them or 1,085,977 had been fully-vaccinated.
No booster doses were offered to children for now.
ProtectHealth Corporation yesterday reminded parents and guardians of the May 31 deadline for children to get their first vaccination shot under PICKids. The initial deadline was May 15.
With 11 more days to go, ProtectHealth said the list of vaccination centres could be found at https://vaksincovid.protecthealth.com.my/find
From June 1, children would no longer be offered free vaccination for the first doses of the Comirnaty and CoronoVac vaccines.