KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 3 — Health authorities reported 12 new Covid-19 deaths today, a record 24-hour toll, all in Sabah, including a 14-year-old boy, bringing the nation’s coronavirus death toll to 263 fatalities.
Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said during a press conference on Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 cases, that the 14-year-old foreign boy had underlying tuberculosis and hydrocephalus (build up of fluid in the brain), which was complicated with Covid-19.
“We are not sure if tuberculosis had killed him or Covid-19, but both the diseases can cause death,” Dr Noor Hisham said.
The dozen Covid-19 death cases reported today, all from Sabah, included the death of a 25-year-old foreign man who did not have any underlying disease.
Dr Noor Hisham also explained that an auxiliary cop who works at the Prime Minister’s Office in the Seri Perdana Complex in Putrajaya were among three individuals who tested positive with Covid-19 in Parliament.
The auxiliary cop had gone to Parliament for a special task. The coronavirus infection from the auxiliary cop had also spread to three of his friends and his wife.
“A cluster has been identified, which is the Seri Dana cluster involving five auxiliary police.”
Till Thursday this week, daily Parliament sittings have been rescheduled from 10am to 1pm only, instead of usual sittings lasting till 5.30pm daily, as all afternoon sessions have been postponed to minimise the spread of Covid-19.
Besides that, the Health director-general also highlighted that the Ministry of Health (MOH) has suggested to the Speaker of the Dewan Rakyat to carry out periodic testing every two weeks for those on duty in Parliament, along with the MPs.
“MOH has suggested that testing is done periodically, not just three days before Parliamentary sitting, but periodically every two weeks,” Dr Noor Hisham said.
While pointing out that the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) in the Klang Valley was a proactive measure, he said that currently MOH is considering using the term, “orange zone”, if a specific area has 21 to 40 active Covid-19 cases. This means that if an area is an orange zone, action will be taken to reduce the spread of Covid-19 there.
MOH currently uses three coloured zones in its 14-day moving charts across districts: green for zero new local cases reported in the past fortnight, yellow for one to 40 cases, and red for 41 cases and above.
At the same time, Dr Noor Hisham urged the public to stay at home, if possible, to break the chain of Covid-19 infection for two weeks.
“Incubation period is two weeks. If there’s no space for the virus to be transmitted from one place to another, then rest assured, after two weeks, the virus will die.”
Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, Health director-general
“So I think this is our, in terms of public health intervention, we have done this from day one. I hope that we will continue to do this and we need the collaboration of each and everyone of us,” Dr Noor Hisham added.
Sabah’s Covid-19 Highlights
Today, Sabah reported 678 positive cases, which was almost 65 per cent of the nationwide 1,054 Covid-19 cases.
The highest number of cases and deaths were reported in Kota Kinabalu, with 341 positive Covid-19 cases and nine deaths.
Sabah has a total bed capacity for both Covid-19 hospitals and low-risk quarantine and treatment centres (PKRC) of 8,241 beds (883 hospital beds and 7,358 PKRC beds). The occupancy rate for these beds as a whole is 38.08 per cent.
National Covid-19 Highlights
A total of 1,054 positive cases were reported today, bringing the cumulative active cases in Malaysia to 10,135 cases.
Out of the 1,054 cases,14 cases were imported, involving three Malaysians and 11 foreigners.
The breakdown of the nation’s locally transmitted 1,040 Covid-19 cases according to states is as below:
- Sabah – 678 cases
- Selangor – 124 cases
- Labuan – 81 cases
- Negri Sembilan – 71 cases
- Penang – 35 cases
- Sarawak – 21 cases
- Kedah – 12 cases
- Kuala Lumpur – 10 cases
- Putrajaya – three cases
- Perak – two cases
- Johor – one case
- Melaka – one case
- Terengganu – one case
Currently, there are 94 patients being treated in the intensive care unit (ICU), including 32 of them on ventilator support.
Two new clusters were also reported today, Cergas cluster and Permatang cluster. The index case of the Cergas cluster in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan, was detected positive with Covid-19 during a symptomatic screening. So far, a total of 12 positive cases have been identified in this cluster.
The second cluster in Permatang cluster in Kulim, Kedah, was detected first in the index case who had severe acute respiratory infection (SARI). A total of eight individuals have tested positive in this cluster.
