COVID-19 weekly round-up: No deaths six days in a row

Over the past six days in a row, no fatality was reported and as of noon yesterday, the death tally remained at 115 or 1.51 per cent of the total cumulative COVID-19 cases in Malaysia which now stood at 7,629. Currently, there are 1,345 active cases.

The 10 new cases reported over the 24-hour period up to noon yesterday comprised local transmissions with non-citizens accounting for five of them.

Eighty-six patients were discharged yesterday, bringing the total number of recovered cases to 6,169, which translates into a recovery rate of 80.86 per cent. Eight patients are currently being treated in intensive care units, with four of them requiring ventilatory support.

On Wednesday, 15 new COVID-19 cases (including six imported) were reported, out of which nine involved local transmissions – this was the first time since the MCO was enforced that local transmissions had dwindled to a single-digit figure with four of them involving non-citizens.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, during his daily media conference on Wednesday, reminded Malaysians that the war against COVID-19 has not ended yet and urged them not to throw caution to the wind.

He said the Ministry of Health (MOH) expects a new wave of cases if most people do not comply with the standard operating procedures (SOPs) set by the government.

SOP-compliance is absolutely crucial in view of the fact that a large number of COVID-19 positive cases are asymptomatic. This finding, shared by MOH on its official website, is based on COVID-19 screenings carried out on tahfiz school students and wet market workers.

During screenings carried out at 378 tahfiz schools and madrasah, 15,000 samples were collected and 684 positive cases were detected, out of which 588, or 86 per cent, did not show any symptom of the disease.

As for screenings involving wet market workers, 271 were found positive but 234 of them or 86 per cent did not show any symptom.

These results are worrying as asymptomatic COVID-19 positive people can unknowingly infect others.

Incidentally, Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin himself is now undergoing a 14-day quarantine because an officer who attended a post-Cabinet meeting at the Prime Minister’s Office last week had tested positive for COVID-19.

The sharp spike in new cases on Monday (172 cases) and Tuesday (187) initially came as an unsettling shock but a breakdown of the statistics revealed that most of the new infections involved foreigners detained at three immigration detention depots.

Explaining the hike in new infections on MOH’s website on Wednesday, Dr Noor Hisham said the increase was due to case detection measures implemented at various Immigration Detention Depots (DTI). Other active clusters, also mainly involving non-citizens, had also contributed to the new cases reported.

“It is part of the government’s targeted approach to stem the transmission of COVID-19,” he said, referring transmissions.to the case detection measures.

Out of the 187 new cases reported on Tuesday, 10 were imported and the remaining 177, local

The locally transmitted cases comprised 173 foreigners (including 155 detected at the Bukit Jalil DTI and 13 from the Cheras security guard cluster) and four Malaysians.

Out of the 172 new cases reported on Monday, five were imported and the remaining local transmissions. The 167 locally transmitted cases consisted of 159 foreigners (including 112 detected at Sepang DTI, Bukit Jalil DTI and Semenyih DTI) and eight Malaysians.

The overall drop in local transmissions is due to the various public health measures implemented by the government under the MCO and conditional MCO. Public compliance with the new normal and business sectors’ adherence to the SOPs have also helped to keep new infections under control.

The World Health Organisation (WHO), meanwhile, has warned that nations that have recorded a reduction in COVID-19 cases may see a second peak of infections if they lift measures to halt the outbreak too soon.