COVID-19: 1,054 new cases, 12 more deaths

PUTRAJAYA:The number of new COVID-19 cases in the country today has returned to four digits at 1,054 cases apart from recording the highest daily death toll with 12 cases since the pandemic hit the country.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the latest data brings the total number of COVID-19 positive cases in Malaysia to 34,393 cases while the number of active cases stands at 10,135 and the cumulative death toll in the country is 263 cases.

“From the total new cases, 1,040 cases are local transmissions while 14 are import cases,” he told the media conference on COVID-19 development at the Health Ministry (MOH) here today.

Seven of the local transmissions involved those who returned from Sabah, bringing the total reported cases with history of travelling to Sabah since Sept 20 to 478 cases.

“The import cases involved three locals and 11 foreigners and they arrived from South Korea (four cases), Japan and Philippines two cases each, and one case each from Uzbekistan, China, Hong Kong, Nepal, United Kingdom and Maldives,” he said.

On the spread of COVID-19 in the country, Dr Noor Hisham said Sabah recorded the highest number of new infections with 678 cases followed by Selangor (124), Labuan (81), Negeri Sembilan (71), Penang (35), Sarawak (21), Kedah (12), Kuala Lumpur (10), Putrajaya (three), Perak (two) and one each in Johor, Melaka and Terengganu.

“From the 678 cases in Sabah, 310 cases were related to prison and temporary detention centre (PTS) clusters and from that number, the Rumah Merah cluster contributed 229 cases or about 73.9 per cent.

“Nonetheless, the higher new cases could be attributed to more screening carried out in the states under Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO),” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham also said 94 positive cases were treated at intensive care unit (ICU) with 32 requiring respiratory assistance.

-- BERNAMA