Covid-19: 1,348 more cases as we near 100k mark, death toll now at 444

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia recorded 1,348 more Covid-19 infections on Wednesday (Dec 23), taking the country’s total confirmed cases to 98,737.

Five people also died due to the coronavirus, raising Malaysia’s Covid-19 death toll to 444.

The country discharged 710 Covid-19 patients, which means 80,014 people have recovered.

The number of people with active Covid-19 infections in Malaysia has gone up to 18,279.

Currently, 102 patients are in intensive care, with 44 requiring ventilator support.

At a press conference, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said 16 of Wednesday’s cases were imported infections, while the rest were local transmissions.

He said Selangor recorded the highest increase of the day for the eighth day running.

However, the state’s daily figure is a slight reduction at 535 confirmed cases, which is 39.7% of Wednesday’s total.

The state is followed by Kuala Lumpur with 226 or 16.8% of cases, and Sabah with 189 cases (14.0%).

There are 193 new cases reported from prison and detention centre clusters, which is about 14.3% of Wednesday’s tally.

This includes the Jalan Harapan prison cluster which saw 123 new cases and the Tembok Gajah cluster with 56 new cases.

The number of new local cases in the remaining states are as follows: Melaka (124 cases), Johor (118), Pahang (45), Penang (43), Negri Sembilan (31), Kedah (14), Perak (eight), Sarawak (three local, one imported), Kelantan (four), Putrajaya (four), Labuan (two) and Terengganu (one).

Only Perlis has zero cases.

On the five deaths on Wednesday, Dr Noor Hisham said two cases were in Selangor, while the rest were in Sabah, Kuala Lumpur and Negri Sembilan.

All were Malaysian citizens and aged between 40 and 71.