KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 20 — Klang Valley’s daily average Covid-19 cases have been continuously rising despite five weeks of movement restrictions, a 51 per cent increase as compared to last week.
From November 7 till November 13, the daily average cases in Klang Valley was 265 cases, but it spiked by almost 51 per cent this week to 399 cases.
From November 14 till November 20, the average daily cases in the country’s economic centre the past week have increased by almost 11 times as compared to the first week of October.
Despite the Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) in Klang Valley showing no decline in the average number of daily Covid-19 cases week after week since its October 14 implementation, the Ministry of Health (MOH) has decided to continue its lockdown strategy until a Covid-19 vaccine arrives.
Deputy Health Minister Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali told CodeBlue yesterday that the CMCO will block people’s movements, either inter-district or inter-state, so that the infection doesn’t spread.
Sabah, which reported a decline in daily average Covid-19 cases in the week of November 7 to 13 compared to the previous week, saw daily average infections rising back again with a 2.5 per cent increase these past seven days as compared to last week.
Today, Sabah contributed almost 54 per cent of the nation’s total Covid-19 cases, indicating that the Covid-19 crisis in the country’s poorest state is far from over. From October 1 to November 20, Sabah reported a total of 23,564 Covid-19 cases, comprising 57 per cent of the nation’s 41,416 infections in that period.
Malaysia has reported 52,638 Covid-19 cases as of today, out of which 79 per cent were reported in the past seven weeks alone since October 1. Malaysia hit the 50,000-mark two days ago on November 18, on track to surpassing Singapore’s cumulative 58,143 Covid-19 cases as of today. Singapore reported zero new locally transmitted infections the 10th straight day today.
As compared to the first week of October from October 3 till October 9 with a daily average of 422 coronavirus cases nationwide, Malaysia’s daily average Covid-19 cases have almost tripled this week, reporting a daily average of 1,078 cases.
Over the last week, Malaysia has been reporting four-digit cases almost every day, bringing the total number of Covid-19 cases to above 50,000 cases.
Singapore Tightens Border Control Measures
Singapore announced today a tightening of border control measures for travellers from Malaysia due to a recent “sharp increase in cases”. All travellers entering Singapore from November 22 at 11.59pm with travel history (including transit) in the past 14 days to Malaysia will now be required to serve 14-day quarantine at Stay-Home Notice (SHN) facilities.
Previously, travellers from Malaysia (excluding Sabah) were allowed to serve a 7-day SHN at their place of residence, while travellers with travel history to Sabah were required to serve a 14-day SHN at SHN facilities.
Singapore’s new border control measures applies to travellers entering Singapore to work under the Periodic Commuting Arrangement and returning Singapore-based travellers under the Singapore – Malaysia Reciprocal Green Lane (RGL).
In addition, travellers who are not Singaporean citizens or permanent residents, and who have recent travel history to Malaysia within the last 14 days prior to entry will be required to take an RT-PCR test within 72 hours before departure and show a negative result before entering Singapore. This requirement will take effect for those arriving in Singapore from November 27 at 11.59pm. However, this requirement will not apply for returning Singapore-based travellers under the Singapore – Malaysia RGL.
National Covid-19 Highlights
Today, Malaysia reported 958 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the total number of Covid-19 cases in the country to 52,638 cases.
The breakdown of the 953 locally transmitted cases according to states is as below:
- Sabah: 512 cases
- Selangor: 153 cases
- Kuala Lumpur: 41 cases
- Negri Sembilan : 153 cases
- Kedah: 19 cases
- Penang: 25 cases
- Labuan: one case
- Sarawak: two cases
- Johor: nine cases
- Perak: 24 cases
- Melaka : two cases
- Kelantan: seven cases
- Terengganu: four cases
- Putrajaya: one case
Three deaths were reported in Sabah today, bringing the total fatalities from Covid-19 to 329.
MOH reported five new clusters today:
- Kasir Kluster: Tawau, Sabah (detected during a symptomatic screening)
- Sri Jujur cluster : Klang, Sepang, Petaling, Selangor (detected during a workplace screening)
- Oad cluster: Seremban, Jelebu, Kuala Pilah, Jempol in Negri Sembilan and Hulu Langat in Selangor (detected during a symptomatic screening)
- Enggor cluster: Kerian, Kuala Kangsar, Batang Padang, and Kinta in Perak (detected during a symptomatic screening)
- Makmur cluster: Kuala and Johor Bahru, Johor (detected during a symptomatic screening)
Among the 13,221 active Covid-19 cases today, 110 patients are being treated at the intensive care unit with 42 of them on ventilator support.
