Covid-19 deaths back to double digits after two months

PUTRAJAYA: Twelve more people have died due to Covid-19 in Malaysia, taking the country's death toll to 1,345.

Read more here: Covid-19: 1,767 new cases reported, record high of 607 in Sarawak

It was the first time in nearly two months that Covid-19 deaths in Malaysia went back to double-digit figures.

The last time was on Feb 27, when 10 people succumbed to the virus.

In his daily Covid-19 updates on Tuesday (April 13), Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said all 12 were Malaysians aged between 37 and 89.

The deaths were recorded in Sabah (four cases), Sarawak (four), Selangor (three) and Terengganu (one).

"The ministry extends its condolences to their family members," said Dr Noor Hisham.

Five of the 12 deaths have been classified as dead on arrival (DOA) by the Health Ministry.

Three were cases at the Tawau Hospital in Sabah, involving a 75-year-old woman with hypertension and diabetes, an 88-year-old man with asthma and a 76-year-old man with no recorded conditions.

The other two DOA cases involved an 81-year-old woman with hypertension at Keningau Hospital in Sabah and an 89-year-old woman with dementia at Hospital Hulu Terengganu.

There was a spike in the number of patients in intensive care units (ICU), up to 199 from 188 the previous day.

Of that total, 82 are currently on ventilator support.

There were also 1,767 new Covid-19 cases and 1,290 recoveries in the country.

The number of active cases has now risen to 16,300.

There are nine import cases while the rest are local transmissions.

Sarawak recorded the highest increase out of all states with 607 new cases.

Dr Noor Hisham said at least 60 of Sarawak's cases were from the new Jalan Puncak Borneo cluster.

Selangor has the second highest figure with 483 new cases, followed by Kuala Lumpur (133), Sabah (117) and Kelantan (103).

Only Perlis reported zero cases.