Record number of new COVID-19 cases in Malaysia for third straight day
Health workers wearing personal protective equipment carry a coffin during a funeral for a COVID-19 victim at Nirvana memorial in Semenyih, Malaysia, on May 26, 2021. (Photo: AP/Vincent Thian)
KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia on Thursday (May 27) reported a record number of new COVID-19 cases for the third straight day, with 7,857 infections.
The Klang Valley area accounted for about 40 per cent of the new cases, with 2,675 cases in Selangor and 561 cases in Kuala Lumpur.
Case numbers have continued to climb in the northern states. Kelantan reported 754 new cases while Terengganu and Kedah had 282 infections and 441 infections respectively. There were 549 new cases in Johor and 772 infections in Sarawak.
Fifty-nine COVID-19 deaths were also recorded, all of them Malaysians, taking the national death toll to 2,491.Â
There are currently 771 patients in the intensive care units, another new record for the third consecutive day. Of these, 392 require respiratory support.
The health ministry said that the majority of current COVID-19 patients are those in the younger age group of 20 to 40. Most of these cases are “sporadic”, with no clear source of infection.
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In an update earlier on Thursday, the health ministry said there was an increase in the number of fatalities that were “brought in dead” for the period of May 1 to May 25. These are COVID-19 victims who did not die in a hospital.
A total of 93 “brought in dead” cases were reported for this period, compared to 35 victims in April this year. This is an increase of 165.7 per cent, said the ministry.
The health ministry also provided an update on cases that were detected two weeks after the Hari Raya Puasa celebrations.
Twelve community clusters in seven states were detected. A total of 2,541 people were tested, with 470 confirmed to have COVID-19, the health ministry said in a tweet.
Of these cases, there was one fatality in Selangor.
In addition to COVID-19 clusters brought about by Hari Raya Puasa celebrations and inter-state travel, health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah said authorities are also grappling with clusters at workplaces or offices.Â
Including the 20 new clusters announced on Thursday, Malaysia currently has a total of 593 active clusters. A total of 233 clusters are directly linked to workplaces involving 16,785 active COVID-19 cases.Â
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Malaysia has set records for the highest number of new daily cases six times in the past nine days, with the daily count above the 6,000 mark since May 19.Â
Health authorities have repeatedly urged members of the public to carry out a “self-lockdown” and only leave their houses for essential activities. ​​​​​​​
As of Thursday, Malaysia has reported a total of 541,224 COVID-19 infections, of which 69,408 are classified as active or infectious.
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