Covid-19: Two Sabah deaths, 1,220 new cases nationwide

PUTRAJAYA: The health ministry has reported 1,220 Covid-19 cases and three deaths in the past 24 hours.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said there were 1,297 recoveries, bringing the total number of those discharged to 74,030.

In a statement, Noor Hisham said with the 1,220 cases the total number of infections in the country to date  is now 89,133.

ADVERTISEMENT

Meanwhile, the three deaths bring the toll to 432.

Selangor recorded the highest number of infections with 368 cases today, followed by Kuala Lumpur (297) and Sabah (184).

Noor Hisham said 247 of the 368 cases in Selangor were from existing clusters and discovered through close contact tracing.

Other states with new cases today were Melaka (98), Penang (80), Johor (67), Perak (41), Negeri Sembilan (33), Kelantan (10), Kedah (9), Sarawak (9), Pahang (4), and Terengganu (2), while the federal territories of Labuan and Putrajaya recorded 16 and two cases, respectively.

Perlis was the only state that did not record any new case today.

Out of the 1,220 cases today, only six were imported cases.

ADVERTISEMENT

A total of 135 infections came from prison clusters, namely the Jalan Harapan (98), Tembok (36) and Seberang Perai (one) clusters.

On the three deaths, Noor Hisham said they involved two Malaysians and one foreigner. They were aged between 36 and 81, and all of them had a history of chronic illnesses.

There are currently 14,671 active cases with 106 patients receiving intensive care, 53 of whom require respiratory assistance.

The health ministry has detected three new Covid-19 clusters in the country over the last 24 hours.

In a statement today, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said they are known as the Jalan Rusa cluster and Pasifik construction site cluster in Kuala Lumpur and the Maringkan cluster in Sabah.

The index case for the Jalan Rusa cluster in Cheras, Kuala Lumpur, was detected during community screenings which started early this month. Of the 1,267 individuals screened in the cluster, 129 have tested positive so far.

ADVERTISEMENT

The Pasifik construction site cluster in Lembah Pantai, Kuala Lumpur, was detected after workplace screenings at a construction site on Dec 12. A total of 159 individuals have been screened in the cluster, of which 17 have tested positive so far.

The Maringkan cluster involves the Telupid and Ranau districts in Sabah. The index case was detected after an individual tested positive during symptomatic individual screenings on Dec 5. Since then, 93 people have been screened, with 11 testing positive.

Meanwhile, Noor Hisham said there were six clusters that ended today, namely Benteng PK, Kapas BJ, Garden, Bah Tropicana, Bah Bercham and Mentari.

This brings the total number of active clusters being monitored nationwide to 193.

Noor Hisham added the clusters reporting the highest number of new cases in the last 24 hours were the Jalan Harapan prison cluster (98 cases), the Jalan Rusa cluster (57 cases) and the Bintang cluster (50 cases).