Covid-19 cases: On Christmas Eve, Malaysia passes the 100k mark

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia recorded 1,581 more Covid-19 infections on Thursday (Dec 24), passing the 100,000 mark.

So far, the country has recorded a total of 100,318 confirmed cases.

From the new infections reported, only two were imported while the rest were local transmissions.

Currently, the number of people with active Covid-19 infections in Malaysia stands at 18,773.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, in a statement said two people also died due to the coronavirus, raising Malaysia’s Covid-19 death toll to 446.

On Thursday, some 1,085 Covid-19 patients were discharged, bringing the number of people who have recovered from the virus to 81,099.

Some 102 patients are in intensive care, with 45 requiring ventilator support.

Dr Noor Hisham said Selangor recorded the highest increase of the day with 491 or 31.1% of the total.

He said 375 out of the 491 cases in Selangor were from the current clusters and close contact screening.

The state is followed by Kuala Lumpur with 379 or 24% of cases, and Sabah with 249 cases (15.7%).

There were 270 (17.1%) new cases reported from prison and detention centre clusters.

This includes the Jalan Harapan prison cluster which saw 185 new cases and the Tembok Gajah cluster with 74 new cases.

Dr Noor Hisham said currently there were a total of 468 clusters, including four new clusters reported on Thursday.

Out of that, 262 clusters have ended while 206 are active clusters.