KUALA LUMPUR, May 8 — Malaysia confirmed 68 new Covid-19 cases today, bringing the total number of cases to 6,535.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said of the 68 cases, 57 involve non-Malaysians. Malaysia started testing foreign workers for the virus last week.
“We also have four imported cases, three from the United Kingdom and one from the United States.
“This means we have 64 local transmission cases and three inside enhanced movement control order (EMCO) areas.
Dr Noor Hisham also said 88 individuals have been discharged. This means the total number of those who have recovered from the virus is 4,864, or 77.43 per cent of confirmed cases.
“There are also 18 positive cases currently being treated in intensive care units (ICU), with seven of them requiring respiratory support,” he said.
The official death toll in Malaysia currently stands at 107.
On a related matter, Dr Noor Hisham also said that sporadic cases from influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infection (Sari) in Malaysia are decreasing.
He said that although the Ministry of Health (MOH) saw an increase of cases in April, the numbers have been going down since, with less than three cases in a week.
“7,593 cases were screened, involving those who go to the emergency room and those who seek treatment at hospitals.
“From that, only five which were positive... A positive rate of 0.1 per cent. That’s what we do to detect sporadic cases, which is at 0.1 per cent and it is decreasing,” he said.
