S’wak charts 607 cases as infections continue to increase

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia’s Covid-19 daily case figures are back on an ascending trend after Sarawak registered a new record high of 607 infections.

The state’s figures comprised 34.4% of the country’s 1,767 new cases yesterday, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

“Of Sarawak’s total, 319 cases were uncovered from infection clusters as well as contact tracing activities.

“About 60 of the state’s new cases are from the newly identified Jalan Puncak Borneo cluster,” said Dr Noor Hisham in his daily Covid-19 update.

The outbreak is linked to trainees of a training centre in Jalan Puncak Borneo, Kuching.

“A targeted screening exercise was conducted on 111 related individuals starting from April 11.

“As of yesterday, there were 61 confirmed cases,” he added.

Selangor recorded 483 new cases, which is 27.3% of the country’s cases and the second highest out of all states.

Three other states recorded triple-digit figures yesterday: Kuala Lumpur (133 cases), Sabah (117) and Kelantan (103).

There were also 12 more Covid19 deaths, taking the country’s tally up to 1,345.

It is the first time in nearly two months since Malaysia saw double digits in Covid-19 deaths.

The last time was on Feb 27, when 10 people succumbed to the virus.

Dr Noor Hisham said all the 12 fatalities involved Malaysian citizens aged between 37 and 89.

The deaths were recorded in Sabah (four cases), Sarawak (four), Selangor (three) and Terengganu (one).

Five of the 12 deaths have been classified as “dead on arrival” by the Health Ministry.

Three of them were at Tawau Hospital in Sabah involving a 75-year-old woman with hypertension and diabetes, an 88-year-old man with asthma and a 76-year-old man with no known conditions.

The other two were an 81-yearold woman with hypertension at Keningau Hospital in Sabah and an 89-year-old woman with dementia at Hospital Hulu Terengganu.

The number of patients in intensive care units showed a hike, too, up to 199 from 188 the previous day.

Of that total, 82 are on ventilator support.

The ministry also identified nine new clusters yesterday, with the number of active ones now at 344.