COVID-19: Number of new cases remains in double digits with 71, two deaths - Health DG

The number of new COVID-19 cases in the country has remained below 100 for the seventh day in a row, with 71 reported within the last 24 hours, says Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said this took the cumulative number of cases reported so far to 5,603, with two new deaths recorded.

Meanwhile, he said 90 COVID-19 patients had recovered and were discharged, bringing the total number of fully recovered cases to 3,542.

"As has been the trend lately, the number of cases discharged today exceeded the number of new cases.

"There have been two more cases of COVID-19 related deaths. Thus, the cumulative number of COVID-19 deaths in Malaysia is 95, which is 1.7 per cent of the total number of cases," he said during the daily press conference on COVID-19 here.

Malaysia began recording a double-digit increase in the number of new positive cases on April 17 with 69, and it was followed by 54 cases (April 18), 84 cases (April 19), 36 cases (April 20), 57 cases (April 21) and 50 cases (April 22).

Dr Noor Hisham said there were currently 1,966 active cases being treated in isolation.

He added that 42 cases were in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with 21 cases requiring respiratory assistance.

“The 94th death (case number 3,871) was that of a 32-year-old Malaysian woman with a history of hypertension.

"She was a MOH medical officer and had a history of coming in close contact with COVID-19 positive case number 3,662 (related to the Muar specialist hospital cluster in Johor).

“She was admitted to the Enche’ Besar Hajjah Khalsom Hospital in Johor on April 6, 2020, and was pronounced dead on April 23, 2020, at 12.36 pm. This is the third death among MOH health staff,” he said.

The 95th death (case number 4129) was that of a 67-year-old local man with a history of diabetes, hypertension, heart disease and kidney disease.

He had a close contact history with COVID-19 positive case number 1,575 (related to the Bali PUI cluster) before being admitted to the Tengku Ampuan Afzan Hospital in Pahang on April 8, 2020 and was pronounced dead at 11.48 pm on April 22, 2020.

-- BERNAMA