COVID-19: 12 new cases, one death reported today - Health DG

A total of 12 new positive COVID-19 cases - seven of them locally transmitted - and one new death were reported in the country today.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this brought the cumulative number of positive cases in the country to 8,976 cases while there were a total of 125 deaths due to the virus to date.

"Of the seven local transmission cases, five involved Malaysians and two were non-citizens," he said in a statement today.

He said two cases involving Malaysians were detected from the Sivagangga PUI (patient under investigation) Cluster in Kedah, as well as one each in Johor, Selangor, and Negeri Sembilan.

The case in Johor was detected via pre-surgical screening at the Sultan Ismail Hospital, the case in Selangor from pre-surgical screening at a medical centre, while the one in Negeri Sembilan was detected via a screening test done at a lockup.

"The two locally transmitted cases involving non-citizens were detected in Johor through pre-surgical screening tests and one death case was detected positive for COVID-19 at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Sabah," he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said the 125th death case involved a 64-year-old Filipino man with a history of heart disease.

"He had symptoms of fever, cough and shortness of breath on July 25, but did not seek treatment. On July 29, he was found unconscious and later taken to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Sabah.

"He was pronounced dead, and screening tests showed he was positive for COVID-19," said Dr Noor Hisham.

Meanwhile, he said the five import cases involved two locals and three non-citizens who were allowed to enter Malaysia.

"The import cases are from Indonesia (three), Qatar (one) and the United Kingdom (one)," he said.

In the meantime, he said another 27 cases had fully recovered, taking the number of recovered cases to 8,644, or 96.3 per cent of the total number of cases.

"Therefore, the total number of active cases with COVID-19 infection is 207. They have been isolated and receiving treatment," he said, adding that three cases were being treated at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and one required respiratory support.

-- BERNAMA