KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 — Malaysia reported 16 fatalities from Covid-19 in the past 24 hours, the biggest daily death toll since the pandemic hit the country a year ago.
The Ministry of Health (MOH) reported that out of the 16 people killed by the coronavirus, all Malaysians, three were brought in dead — men in Sabah aged 46, 63, and 66 with a history of chronic conditions.
Two of those three brought-in-dead Sabahans died in the state capital of Kota Kinabalu, while the other perished in Sandakan. Brought-in-dead means that the victims died of Covid-19 before they were able to receive medical treatment.
Thirteen of the 16 coronavirus deaths reported today were men, while three were women. They were aged between 44 and 79.
Selangor comprised the highest number of Covid-19 deaths recorded today at nine fatalities, followed by Sabah (four), and Johor (three).
All the victims had underlying health conditions, such as hypertension, diabetes, chronic kidney disease, high cholesterol, and heart disease, among others. Malaysia’s overall Covid-19 death toll now stands at 537 fatalities (0.41 per cent of total infections).
“The number of deaths rose today because some cases required a period of time for further investigations before the death is officially attributed to Covid-19,” Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement.
MOH reported 2,643 new Covid-19 cases today, including two imported infections, pushing the cumulative infections to 131,108 cases, surpassing Myanmar’s total 128,772 coronavirus infections recorded yesterday night. Myanmar reported 594 new Covid-19 cases yesterday.
Malaysia now has the third highest total Covid-19 cases in Southeast Asia, behind the Philippines (482,083) and Indonesia (797,723).
Selangor comprised the largest number of Covid-19 cases in Malaysia reported today at 1,086 infections (83.2 per cent), followed by Sabah’s 401 cases (15.2 per cent) and Johor’s 298 cases (11.3 per cent).
There are a total of 25,140 active Covid-19 cases in Malaysia. A total of 170 Covid-19 cases are in the intensive care unit (ICU), including 82 on ventilator support.
Six new clusters were reported today, with 257 active clusters. The new clusters were detected in Selangor, Sabah, and Kuala Lumpur.
