COVID cases in Malaysia jump to 5,685, highest in three months

KUALA LUMPUR: COVID-19 cases in Malaysia rose to 5,685 as of midnight Wednesday (July 20), pushing the overall total to 4,635,648 since the pandemic hit the country.

Based on the data from the COVIDNOW portal, 5,683 cases were local transmissions while two others were new imported cases.

Selangor reported the highest with 2,024 new COVID cases, followed by Kuala Lumpur (1,834), Perak (357), Sabah (279), Negeri Sembilan (230), Penang (205), Malacca (147), Johor (126) and Kedah (126).

Other states reported a two-digit number of cases, namely; Putrajaya (92), Sarawak (85), Pahang (63), Kelantan (53), Terengganu (41), Labuan (15) while Perlis detected eight cases.

The Ministry of Health (MOH) recorded a total of 3,337 new recoveries, which brings the total number of those recovered and discharged to 4,554,286.

According to MOH, currently there are 45,484 active cases, with 56 patients under intensive care and 35 in need of ventilator support.

Meanwhile, there were eight new deaths, with five confirmed as brought-in-dead, taking the national death toll to 35,878.

Malaysia administered 15,700 COVID vaccine on Wednesday, with 85.9 per cent of the population having received at least one dose.

About 83.9 per cent of the nation are fully vaccinated, while 49.5 per cent having received the first booster and 0.8 per cent have received the second booster jab.