KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 29 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 649 new Covid-19 cases today, a record daily low in almost two weeks after October 16 when 629 cases were reported.
After 21 days of continuously reporting Covid-19 death cases since October 7, there were no new deaths reported today, hence, the death toll remains at 246 cases.
The number of recoveries today were 685 cases, which has exceeded the number of new infections reported.
According to a statement by Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, Sabah and Klang Valley contributed 78.7 per cent of today’s Covid-19 cases.
Sabah reported 352 cases that were detected in several clusters, including two new clusters — Sakti cluster and Tuguson cluster (55 cases) — close contact screening (170 cases), and other Covid-19 screening (127 cases).
Among the 159 cases reported in the Klang Valley, 132 cases were from Selangor, including two new clusters, Taman Laut cluster and Bah cluster, 17 cases in Kuala Lumpur, while one case was detected in Putrajaya.
Out of the 649 cases, seven cases were imported. The remaining 642 cases were locally transmitted among the states below:
- Sabah (352 cases)
- Selangor (132 cases)
- Negri Sembilan (43 cases)
- Kedah (37 cases)
- Kuala Lumpur (21 cases)
- Labuan (17 cases)
- Penang (13 cases)
- Sarawak (eight cases)
- Perak (five cases)
- Pahang (one case)
- Melaka (one case)
- Terengganu (one case)
- Putrajaya (one case)
Currently, there are 10,087 active Covid-19 cases, including 106 patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) and 23 of them on ventilator support.
MOH reported that from the beginning of the pandemic till September 26, Labuan only reported 26 Covid-19 cases cumulatively. However, in just over a month from September 27 till October 29, Labuan had reported a total of 366 cases.
CodeBlue previously reported that the average daily incidence rate of Covid-19 cases per 100,000 population in Labuan was 13.7 from October 13 till October 26, which was only slightly lower than Sabah’s average incidence rate of 14.85. The national average incidence rate during that period was 2.52 per 100,000 inhabitants. According to the Department of Statistics Malaysia, Labuan only has an estimated population of 99,600.
Dr Lokman Hakim Sulaiman, who was the former deputy health director-general (public health), told CodeBlue in an interview that even though the absolute number of cases in Labuan is very small relative to Sabah and Selangor, the risk of Labuan people to be infected with the coronavirus is much higher than Selangor and almost matching that of Sabah.
In today’s statement reporting on Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 cases, MOH has predicted that Covid-19 cases in Labuan will see an increasing pattern because of the mass screening that is being done by MOH, especially in potential outbreak areas.
From September 27 till today, a total of 23,807 tests have been done with an average of 1,500 to 2,500 a day, with a positivity rate for the whole Labuan at 1.5 per cent. Labuan is currently under the conditional movement order until November 13.
Due to the rise in the number of Covid-19 cases in Labuan, the government has increased the total bed capacity for low-risk quarantine and treatment centre to 317 beds, a total of 122 beds in Labuan Hospital, and 20 beds as high dependency units and ICU for severe Covid-19 patients (stage four and stage five).
