KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 5 — Malaysia recorded nearly 59,000 Covid-19 cases in the past fortnight alone, when it previously took about 10 months to notch the country’s first 50,000 confirmed infections.
Malaysia surpassed the 50,000 cumulative mark only on November 18, 2020 since the first Covid-19 cases were reported here, about ten months into the epidemic. However, as cases continued to rise in Malaysia, between January 23 and February 5, health authorities recorded 58,694 positive Covid-19 cases in just 14 days.
Today, the Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 3,391 new cases, making the average daily cases reported this week at 4,420 cases.
There has been an increase in the average daily confirmed coronavirus cases from an average of 1,439 daily cases between December 5 and December 11 last year, to 4,420 cases between January 30 and February 5 this year.
Malaysia’s cumulative cases have increased to 234,874, with 48,751 active cases as of today. Malaysia has the second highest number of Covid-19 cases per 100,000 population (722) after Singapore (1,016), followed by other ASEAN countries like the Philippines (54), Brunei (41), and Cambodia (3).
Although Singapore has a higher number of cases per 100,000 population than Malaysia, Singapore’s cumulative cases are only 59,626, much lower than Malaysia’s 234,874 total infections. Singapore also has been reporting either single or double-digit cases daily for months, mostly imported.
Besides that, Singapore has also started their Covid-19 vaccination programme, while Malaysia will only be receiving their first vaccine supply from Pfizer this month.
CodeBlue did not include Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Myanmar, and Indonesia in the reporting of Covid-19 cases per population, as these countries have not updated their daily tally as of February 5.
As compared to the different states and federal territories in Malaysia, as of February 4, Labuan has the highest total number of Covid-19 cases per 100,000 population at 2,186 cases, followed by 1,582 cases per 100,000 population in Kuala Lumpur.
Sabah had a cumulative 1,274 cases per 100,000 population, only slightly higher than Selangor with 1,127 cases per 100,000 population.
However, with the rising number of cases in Selangor as compared to Sabah, Selangor’s cases per 100,000 population may soon surpass Sabah. Among all the states today, Selangor reported the highest number of coronavirus cases (1,228), much higher than Sabah (196).
Malaysia reported about 708 total Covid-19 cases per 100,000 population as of February 4. Labuan, Kuala Lumpur, Sabah, Selangor, Negeri Sembilan, and Putrajaya all recorded higher cumulative infections per population than the nationwide average.
Malaysia’s death toll has also increased to 845 as 19 new casualties were reported today.
