COVID-19: Malaysia records single-digit new cases for past five days -- Health DG

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said all the cases involved Malaysians with three of them being imported cases due to infections among people who returned from overseas.

“The two local transmissions involved Malaysians who were detected from pre-referral screenings at Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu, Sabah. No non-Malaysian cases were reported today,” he said at a media conference on COVID-19 pandemic here today.

Dr Noor Hisham said the five new cases recorded today bring the total COVID-19 positive cases to 8,648 and the number of active cases are now at 81.

Nine patients have recovered and discharged, bringing the cumulative recoveries to 8,446 cases, thus putting Malaysia’s recovery rate at 97.7 per cent which is almost reaching 100 per cent.

He said there were no COVID-19 related fatalities reported today and the death toll remains at 121 cases or 1.4 per cent of the overall infection cases.

On the worries by some members of the community that some COVID-19 cases have yet to be detected, he said the government had taken the approach of tracking COVID-19 cases through clinical surveillance as well as target group screenings.

“The approach takes into consideration the factor of cost effectiveness and it was also carried out successfully in several countries to combat the COVID-19 pandemic without undertaking large-scale testing.

“With this approach, resources could be conserved and effectively used to conduct tests and screenings as the fight against COVID-19 is still a long way off,” he said.

He said the clinical surveillance system for COVID-19 in Malaysia began on February 12 at MOH health clinics and hospitals and as at July 2, the MOH had cumulatively reported 113 COVID-19 cases from the system of surveillance.

The surveillance also acts as an early detection and early warning system on the spread of COVID-19 in Malaysia. The system has enabled the government to take quick preventive measures to curb its dissemination.