New daily Covid-19 cases drop to below 2,500

A total of 54 cases were reported related to clusters in prisons, lockups and immigration detention depots

by RAHIMI YUNUS / graphic by MZUKRI MOHAMAD

THE highest number of Covid-19 recoveries was recorded yesterday with 4,525 individuals, which brought the cumulative recovery to 213,814 cases, or 80.9% of the total cases.

The number of daily Covid-19 cases has also declined to 2,464 cases, the first drop below the 2,500-mark since Jan 11.

Of the new cases, Health DG Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said Selangor registered the highest new daily cases with 1,103 cases, or 44.8%, followed by Johor with 492 cases (20%) and Sarawak with 161 cases (6.5%).

A total of 54 cases (2.2%) were reported related to clusters in prisons, lockups and immigration detention depots.

Seven new fatalities related to Covid-19 were also registered — three cases in Sarawak, Selangor (two), Sabah (one), Penang (one) — making the cumulative number of deaths to 965 cases or 0.36%.

Dr Noor Hisham said 260 patients are being treated in the intensive care unit, of which 111 cases require ventilators.

He said 11 new clusters emerged with nine clusters involving workplaces, each linked to community and religious activities.

Five of the new 11 clusters are located in Johor, three in Selangor, and one each in Kedah, Sabah and Perak.

Malaysia has recorded 983 clusters to date with 484 active clusters, while 499 have ended.

The Jalan Istimewa Cemerlang cluster registered the highest number of new cases yesterday with 107 cases (Johor), followed by Jalan Usaha Satu cluster (Johor) with 69 cases and Pasai cluster (65) in Sarawak.

Meanwhile, Senior Minister (Security Cluster) Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob said a total of 877 individuals were arrested yesterday for violating the standard operating procedures (SOPs) during the Movement Control Order 2.0.

Failure in adhering to physical distancing topped the SOP breach list with 253 offenders, followed by inter-district or inter-state crossings without approval (177), others (166), pubs and nightclubs activities (101), not wearing face mask (98) and failure in providing equipment to record customers’ details (82).

Among the offenders, 806 people were compounded, while 71 were held in remand.

As for Ops Benteng, Ismail Sabri said the authorities had apprehended 45 illegal foreign workers, five skippers and seized eight land vehicles yesterday.

He said the authorities also tracked 102 boats and ships on the Malaysian waters through six surveillance activities during the operation. The operation also included 531 roadblocks yesterday.

The minister said 494 Malaysians arrived at the country’s international entry points yesterday and they have been quarantined at various centres nationwide.

He said a total of 120,928 individuals have returned to the country since July 24, 2020, and all have been placed at 72 hotels and 12 Public Training Institutes and the Institute of Private Studies nationwide.

A total of 5,719 individuals were quarantined and cumulatively, a total of 114,643 people were allowed to return home while another 566 were taken to hospital.

Ismail Sabri said 73 sanitation operations were carried out yesterday in 31 red zones, six orange zones and five yellow zones across the country on public sanitisation operations.

Read our previous report here