COVID: 153 fatalities reported Sunday, highest daily figure since pandemic hit

KUALA LUMPUR: COVID-19 claimed 153 lives over 24 hours up to noon today, the highest number of fatalities in a single day.

The daily death toll is a jump from the 138 fatalities reported yesterday.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the country's COVID-19 death toll now stands at 7,019 cases.

He said of the fatalities reported today, 125 involved Malaysians while 28 more were foreigners.

They involve fatalities in Selangor (82), Kuala Lumpur (17); Negeri Sembilan (14); Johor (10); Kedah (eight), Pahang (six); Melaka (five); two cases each in Sabah, Penang and Putrajaya and one case each in Terengganu, Sarawak, Kelantan, Perak and Labuan.

Dr Noor Hisham said 5,778 recovered cases were reported today, taking the total number of recoveries to 779,171 cases, while 909 patients are being treated in the intensive care unit (ICU), 445 of whom require respiratory support.

The country now has 124,593 active cases, he said in a statement on COVID-19 developments today.

Meanwhile, breaking down the details of the 10,710 new cases reported today, Dr Noor Hisham said 95 (0.9 per cent) were category five cases (critical and require ventilator support) while 45 (0.4 per cent) were category four (pneumonia requiring oxygen support) cases.

There were 91 (0.9 per cent) category three (pneumonia) cases, 4,162 (38.9 per cent) category two (light symptoms) cases and 6,317 (59.0 per cent) category one (asymptomatic) cases.

He said although overall only 2.1 percent or 231 cases were reported to be in the category of three to five, longer periods of time are required for the cases to be given care in the ward and ICU.

Dr Noor Hisham said for category five cases, the average period of care in the ICU was 21 days, category four (14 days) while category three requires hospital care and observation especially for those at high risk.

"This has resulted in the bed capacity, which is already limited, becoming increasingly full and congested," he said.

Dr Noor Hisham also said that 17 new clusters were reported today with 10 involving workplaces, five in the community and one each involving detention centers and high-risk groups.

Sabah and Johor each recorded four clusters, Selangor (three), Kedah (two) while Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, Kelantan and Pahang reported one cluster each.

The work clusters are Industri Desa Aman, Industri Jalan Klinik, Persiaran Pekeliling Bangi in Selangor; Agathis and Sri Sandau (Sabah); Jalan Segambut Duta (Kuala Lumpur); Industri Jalan Usaha 12 (Melaka); Dah Padang Temusu (Kedah); Batu Enam Pandan (Johor) and Lorong MIEL Lundang (Kelantan).

The clusters in the community involve Jalan Bacang 30, Jalan Tasek Seri Alam and Jalan Denai Utama in Johor; Dah Kampung Kerchut (Kedah) and Pos Iskandar (Pahang) while the detention centre and high-risk groups clusters were identified as Tembok Tawau Dua and Batu Tiga Utara, both in Sabah.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said Malaysia's COVID-19 infectivity rate or R-naught (RT) yesterday was 1.18, with Terengganu being the state that recorded the highest RT value at 1.31.

Other states that also recorded RT above 1.0 were Putrajaya (1.26); Kedah (1.25); Negeri Sembilan and Kuala Lumpur 1.19 respectively; Penang (1.18); Selangor, Melaka and Perak (1.17); Sabah (1.15), Kelantan (1.13), Pahang (1.11) and Johor (1.10).

-- BERNAMA