by TMR / pic by TMR FILE

MALAYSIA recorded the highest number of Covid-19 deaths with 126 yesterday, breaking the previous record of 98 deaths on Saturday. This is the first triple-digit deaths in the country since the pandemic began in January last year. Only three deaths involved the foreigners while the remaining were local citizens, Health DG Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said. The total number of fatalities now stood at 2,993 — and the country is expected to breach the 3,000 mark today. There are 878 patients in the intensive care units with 441 requiring respiratory aid.

A total of 7,703 positive cases were detected, pushing the number of active cases being treated nationwide to 82,274. Up to 5,777 patients have recovered and been discharged from the hospital, bringing the cumulative number of recoveries to 501,898. Selangor saw its cases increase to 2,728 — the eleventh straight day of having more than 2,000 cases a day.

Kuala Lumpur detected a total of 701 cases, followed by Sarawak (558), Johor (554) and Kelantan (541).

Only Putrajaya and Labuan recorded single-digit cases with one and seven respectively.

Klang Valley continued to be the largest contributor of Covid-cases, with 44.5% of total infections being detected in this area.

Separately, Bernama reported that the police issued 781 compounds and arrested 11 individuals for various offences on the first day of the total lockdown, said Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin (picture).

Hamzah said police carried out over 13,000 inspections yesterday to ensure compliance with the stipulated standard operating procedure (SOP) for the total lockdown period, including industry players.

“The high number of compounds issued shows that many still do not comply with the stipulated SOP. We want all parties to play their part in breaking the chain of Covid-19 infection,” he told reporters after monitoring SOP compliance at three factories yesterday with Home Ministry chief secretary Datuk Wan Ahmad Dahlan Abdul Aziz.

The special meeting of the National Security Council on the management of Covid-19 last Friday decided to implement the first phase of the total lockdown for the social and economic sectors nationwide for 14 days from June 1.

Hamzah said the SOP compliance monitoring team will carry out more spot checks in locations nationwide to ensure all parties adhered to the directives issued by the government.

“The spot checks will be carried out daily nationwide and if there are still many who are defiant, the number of personnel for the SOP compliance monitoring teams will be increased,” he said.