409 discharged in one day

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia recorded 409 Covid-19 recoveries, the highest number of patients discharged in a single day since the outbreak began.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this brought the number of patients who have recovered from the virus to 12,014.

“The breakdown of cases that have recovered according to states were Kedah with 226 cases, followed by Sabah (111), Selangor (50), Terengganu (eight), Johor (seven), Negri Sembilan (six) and Pahang (one),” he said during his daily Covid-19 briefing which was broadcast live from his home as he was observing self-quarantine.

The rate of recoveries in the country is 66.3% out of the total cases.

In the same 24-hour period, Malaysia also confirmed 589 new Covid-19 infections, a slight reduction compared to the previous two days in which both saw 660 cases.

With that, the number of active cases in the country is now 5,419 cases while the cumulative total of cases is 18,129.

Sabah continued to be the state with the highest number of infections, having 340 cases, followed by Selangor (150), Perak (52) and Kedah (31).

There are three imported cases – from Indonesia (two) and Ukraine (one) – while the rest are all local transmissions.

The number of patients in intensive care units have gone down from 108 to 103, with those on ventilator support also now down to 31.

Three fatalities were reported, with the country’s Covid-19 death toll now at 170.

All three deaths are in Sabah, including a 100-year-old foreign woman who died in the Duchess of Kent Hospital in Sandakan.

The other two were a 54-year-old Malaysian woman, who died at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu, and a 68-year-old foreign man at Hospital Tawau.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said four new clusters were detected in Sabah, Negri Sembilan, Perak and Labuan.

The Bah Pasir cluster in Port Dickson and the Bah Pengakalan cluster in Hulu Perak both involved index cases who were screened for Covid-19 after travelling to Sabah.

The Bah Pasir cluster has five cases so far, while the Bah Pengkalan cluster has six cases.

Another new cluster, the Olive cluster, is found to have links with Hulu Langat in Selangor and the districts of Kota Marudu and Penampang in Sabah.

“The index case was detected in Selangor following a screening on returnees from Sabah. The individual tested positive on Oct 2 and was admitted to Hospital Sungai Buloh,” said Dr Noor Hisham.

Screening on the index case’s contacts found 16 more positive cases.

The fourth new cluster, the Saguking cluster, was detected in Hospital Labuan and its index case tested positive on Oct 11.

Screening on the individual’s close contacts found four more positive cases.

Currently, there are 75 active Covid-19 clusters.

So far, the Health Ministry has declared 103 clusters as ended, after no cases have been recorded for 28 consecutive days. - Star