New cases breach 8,000 mark, death toll hits 61

PUTRAJAYA: The country’s new Covid-19 cases breached the 8,000 mark after registering a daily record for four days in a row.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said 8,290 new cases were recorded yesterday, taking the nation’s cumulative tally to 549,514.

He said the number of active cases in the country has now reached a record 72,823.

Selangor had the most number of new cases with 2,052 of which 1,553 were detected from tracing of close contacts.

“Another 65 new cases in Selangor are those uncovered from clusters, while 434 are unlinked and detected from various screening activities, ” he said in his daily Covid-19 update yesterday.

Dr Noor Hisham said other places that saw a significant increase in their caseloads were Kelantan with 851 cases, Kuala Lumpur (830), Johor (762) and Sarawak (698).

He said 61 more people, including two foreign nationals, had died due to Covid-19, bringing the country’s death toll to 2,552.

The figure is equal to the daily record of Covid-19 fatalities recorded on May 24.

“Of the 61 deaths, 19 have been recorded in Selangor alone.

“Negri Sembilan had eight cases, Kuala Lumpur had six, Kedah had five.

“Johor and Sarawak had four cases each, Melaka and Perak had three cases each, Penang, Kelantan, Labuan and Terengganu had two cases each, while Sabah had one, ” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said the youngest casualty reported was a 25-year-old man who died at Hospital Labuan who had a history of obesity and asthma.

Three death cases have been classified as ‘brought-in-dead’ – involving a 64-year-old man at Hospital Tengku Ampuan Rahimah in Klang, an 84-year-old woman at Hospital Tumpat, Kelantan and a 27-year-old woman at Hospital Kuala Lumpur.

The number of patients in intensive care units also reached an all- time-high of 808 with 403 requiring ventilator support.

There were 4,814 patients who were discharged from treatment.

The Health Ministry had also identified 21 new clusters nationwide with six workplace clusters while another six are community outbreaks.

Four of the new clusters are linked to religious activities while three others are related to the education sector.

Dr Noor Hisham said one cluster was linked to a detention centre while another was classified as a high-risk group cluster.