DG says new positive cases are high, bringing the total tally to 3,116 cases in the country, with 5 new deaths
by ASILA JALIL/ pic by RAZAK GHAZALI
THE number of Covid-19 recoveries continued to increase as 122 people were discharged yesterday, making it the highest number of recoveries recorded in a single day.
Health DG Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this brings the number of recoveries to 767 or 24.6% of the total cases.
However, new positive cases were also high, with 208 new cases recorded yesterday, bringing the total tally to 3,116 cases in the country.
A police roadblock at the entrance of Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) red zone area in Kampung Sungai Lui, Hulu Langat, on Wednesday. Batu 21,22,23 and 24 villagers are not to venture out of their homes under the EMCO – pic by HUSSEIN SHAHARUDDIN
He said 105 cases are currently being treated at the intensive care unit, while 54 patients require breathing assistance from ventilators.
“According to the latest report from the National Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre, there are five new deaths related to Covid-19. Thus, the cumulative number of Covid-19 deaths in Malaysia is 50 cases or 1.6% of the total number of cases,” he said in a press conference yesterday.
The 46th death case (No 2,909) was a 37-year-old male who had a history of chronic disease and low immunity; the 47th case (No 2,910) was a 78-year-old male with a history of high blood pressure and gout, while the 48th case (No 2,572) was an 85-year-old male with a history of diabetes, high blood pressure and other health problems. All three cases were from Johor.
The 49th death case (No 1,273) was from Sarawak, a 61-year-old male who was in close contact with a positive Covid-19 case (No 2,107). The 50th death case (No 1,767) was a 69-year-old male from Negri Sembilan.
Dr Noor Hisham said the Ministry of Health (MoH) is currently faced with issues involving the distribution of personal protective equipment (PPE) suits to hospitals and clinics in need of the gear.
“Regarding PPE, we did not have enough in the beginning, but we have solved that problem. Now there is an issue of distribution; we have problems distributing the PPE to hospitals and clinics that use them.
“We are in the middle of addressing the logistic issues, especially to Sabah and Sarawak,” he said.
He added that the ministry has also approved a few applications to bring in Remdesivir into the country.
Remdesivir is an antiviral drug which has been claimed to be the potential antiviral in treating Covid-19.
“There were applications to bring it (Remdesivir) into the country and we have approved one or two of them.
“We will try to introduce this new medicine to our patients,” he said.
MoH is also collaborating with four companies to introduce the Online Appointment System at health clinics as an initiative to reduce congestion at clinics during the pandemic, in line with the social-distancing effort.
The four companies are Queuemed, EncoreMed, Bookdoc and DoctorOnCall.
The system will be implemented in phases starting from four clinics in Precint 9, 11, 14 and 18 in Putrajaya. It will then be expanded to selected clinics in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor.
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