KUALA LUMPUR – New Covid-19 cases fell below 800 for the first time in five days, with 732 infections recorded today, Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah announced.
This is a drop of 130 from yesterday, when 862 cases were reported.
It is also the 25th straight day that new cases have outnumbered the number of total recoveries, with 580 individuals declared free of Covid-19 and allowed to be discharged today.
The latest figures brings the total number of cases in the country to 22,957, of which 7,827 are still active.
Six additional fatalities were also recorded today, pushing the death toll to 199.
Of the 732 new cases, three individuals had a history of travelling to Sabah, where cases continue to soar. This brings the total number of cases with travel history to Sabah and Sarawak to 454.
According to Noor Hisham said of the 732 new Covid-19 cases, eight were imported, six of whom involved Malaysia citizens.
Sabah continues to record the highest number of new infections with 535 (or 73.1%). Of these, close to half (254 cases) were identified as positive after the Health Ministry conducted screenings on close contacts.
Selangor recorded the second highest number of new cases with 116, followed by Kuala Lumpur (26), Penang (12), Negri Sembilan (9), Labuan (9), Kedah (7), Perak (7), Putrajaya (6), Melaka (3), Kelantan (1) and Pahang (1).
There are also 102 active Covid-19 cases that are currently admitted to the intensive care unit, of which 31 require ventilator support.
Eight new clusters have also been identified as of today, namely Basung, Inai and Tempayan in Sabah, Long and Melati in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, Cahaya and Bah Kota in Selangor and Negri Sembilan, and Bina in Labuan.
Despite the recent wave of a high number of infections, Noor Hisham said the conditional movement control order (CMCO) in the Klang Valley and Sabah, as well as enhanced MCO in several other areas in the country, have succeeded in keeping the numbers under control.
This is based on the drop in r-nought (r0) – the basic reproduction rate of the coronavirus – from 2.2 on Sunday to 1.2 presently.
The r0 is used to predict the average number of subsequent infections each new case could cause. For instance, an r0 of 4 means every case has the potential to infect four other people.
“Nationwide, the r0 has dropped to 1.2. In Sabah, it’s currently 1.3, with Selangor recording 1.4 and Kedah 0.7. We are seeing some positive signs,” he added. - The Vibes, October 21, 2020
