KUALA LUMPUR, April 26 — Some 60.8 per cent, or 170,173, of Malaysia’s 279,932 Covid-19 cases reported from January 1 this year to yesterday were sporadic, Dr Adham Baba said today.
This indicates widespread community transmission of the virus, even as epidemiologists have warned that a fourth wave of the Covid-19 epidemic in Malaysia is inevitable.
“The top three states that need to be controlled are Selangor (65,215 sporadic cases), Kuala Lumpur (19,834 sporadic cases), and Johor (17,974 sporadic cases),” Health Minister Dr Adham mentioned in a press conference today, referring to infections reported between January 1 and April 25 this year.
A sporadic infection is a positive Covid-19 case whose origin is unknown and not linked to a cluster. Sporadic cases illustrate just a small proportion of a much larger outbreak in a locality with hidden Covid-19 infections. Unlinked cases also reflect low capacity in contact tracing that is unable to match such cases to others.
Last month, Dr Adham introduced five strategies to “flatten the curve” of Covid-19 infection during the country’s state of emergency scheduled until August.
That includes initiatives to reduce the number of daily Covid-19 cases to below 500 by mid-May — a highly improbable target at this point — and to reduce the number of sporadic cases, which was expected to be fuelled by increased screening for Covid-19 in the community.
MOH aimed not only to increase the number of tests, but also increase the capacity of private and government labs that can process the RT-PCR test.
Malaysia has recorded a total of 395,718 total Covid-19 cases as of today, including 2,776 new infections in the past 24 hours.
The number of Covid-19 patients requiring intensive care has increased to 300, including 133 on ventilator support. Thirteen new Covid-19 deaths were also reported today, leading to an overall death toll of 1,449 fatalities.
Selangor reported the highest number of new Covid-19 cases in the country today at 762 cases, followed by Sarawak (615 cases) and Kelantan (343 cases).