KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 — Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 cases rose to 27,831, eclipsing the previous record of 24,599 set in August last year.
This is an increase of 5,698 cases from yesterday’s 22,133.
Health director general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this brought the cumulative total to 3,111,514 cases since the pandemic began.
He also pointed out that just 97 or 0.35 per cent of the new cases were in Categories Three to Five that required hospitalisation.
The remaining 99.65 per cent or 27,734 cases were in Categories One and Two, which were asymptomatic to moderately symptomatic.
Meanwhile, Sabah is expected to be the state with the most new cases, also at a record-breaking 5,082 cases in the last 24 hours.
Of those 97 in Categories Three to Five, 24 cases or 24.7 per cent are either unvaccinated or only partially vaccinated, while 51 of them have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine but have yet to receive a booster shot, rendering them with a lower immunity to the virus.
Five are pregnant while 39 are above the age of 60; 31 or 63 per cent have comorbidities.
Dr Noor Hisham said that recent testing showed that while most of the cases began as mild or asymptomatic, many individuals’ condition began to deteriorate to a point where they required further monitoring and hospitalisation in the following days.
Meanwhile, of the total today, 27,713 were locally-transmitted cases involving 27,049 Malaysians (97.6 per cent) and 664 foreigners (2.4 per cent).
The remaining 118 imported cases comprised 60 Malaysians (50.8 per cent) and 58 foreigners (49 per cent).
He also said 204 people are currently being treated at intensive care, of which 105 are confirmed Covid-19 positive cases while 99 are suspected cases, or under investigation.
Another 116 patients require breathing assistance.
There were also 28 new clusters, bringing the number of active clusters to 467.
So far, 6,190 clusters have ended, out of the cumulative 6,657 clusters detected since the pandemic began.
On a positive note, 7,912 people were certified to have recovered from Covid-19, bringing the total to 2,876,450 or 92.5 per cent recovered cases.
Dr Noor Hisham noted that many other countries in the region were facing an upward trend under the new Omicron variant and reminded Malaysians to comply with all standard operating procedures (SOPs) and get fully vaccinated to protect themselves from the virus.
“We have prepared for the herd immunity coverage following our high vaccination coverage and natural immunity from those recovered from the Covid-19 infection.
“We have to ride on this Omicron storm, and hopefully, it will pass soon, and we move to endemicity,” he said.
