Keeping safe: People donning face masks for their protection in Bukit Bintang, Kuala Lumpur. — AZMAN GHANI/The Star
KUALA LUMPUR: Covid-19 case numbers have exceeded 4.99 million in Malaysia, while globally, the virus has infected more than 648 million people and caused over 6.64 million deaths.
Some 626 million patients have so far recovered from the infection caused by the SARS-CoV-2 virus.
For the week of Nov 26 to Dec 1, the pandemic, which is now in its third year, affected 228 countries and territories.
In Malaysia, 13,169 new daily Covid-19 cases were reported for the week, down 13% from 15,134 cases for the week of Nov 19 to Nov 24.
New daily cases stood below 3,000 this week and Thursday, with 2,375 new daily Covid-19 cases reported, including 11 deaths, and four imported cases, Bernama reported.
Fifty-one deaths were reported during the week, bringing total cumulative deaths in the country due to Covid-19 to 36,695 cases. The highest figure was reported on Nov 30, at 17 cases.
Of the 2,375 new daily cases reported on Thursday, Selangor had the most at 596 cases, followed by Kuala Lumpur (254), Kedah (238), Sarawak (176), Sabah (168), Melaka (160), Penang (133), Kelantan (131), Pahang (107) and Perak (107).
Two-digit figures were reported in Negri Sembilan (93), Putrajaya (75), Terengganu (73), Johor (43), and Labuan (16), while Perlis recorded only five.
For the month of November, the lowest case numbers were reported on Nov 20 (1,633) and the highest on Nov 3 with 4,711 cases.
Meanwhile, active Covid-19 cases according to the Health Ministry’s KKMNow portal, which was updated at 11.59pm on Thursday, stood at 24,467 cases and of the total, 22,637 cases (92.5%) were home quarantined.
A total of 2,857 recovered Covid-19 cases were reported yesterday, bringing the cumulative figure to 4,933,381 cases.
With a cumulative figure of 4,994,543 cases, Malaysia is now ranked 27th in the list of 228 countries/territories hit by the pandemic, with Ukraine and Greece being ahead of Malaysia, with 5,336,293 and 5,404,690 cases respectively.
According to Worldometer, of the list of 228 countries, Japan reported the highest new daily cases (118,201) followed by France (69,253) and South Korea (57,079).
The United States reported the highest number of Covid-19 fatalities, with 1,106,236 cases.
The world’s Top 10 nations when it comes to cumulative cases are as follows: the United States at 100,721,252 (+32,480), India at 44,673,984 (+605), France 37,916,052 (+69,253), Germany 36,499,600 (no information on new cases), Brazil 35,336,482 (+31,767), South Korea 27,155,813 (+57,079), Japan 24,911,367 (+118,201), Italy 24,260,660 (no information), the United Kingdom 24,000,101 (no information) and Russia 21,597,613 (+6,785).
South-East Asian nations that are ahead of Malaysia in terms of cumulative case numbers are Vietnam, which is in 13th spot with 11,516,489 (an increase of 581 cases). Indonesia is at 20th spot, with 6,669,821 (up by 4,977).
Thailand fared marginally better at the 31st spot, with 4,707,244 cases, though no information on new cases were available.
The rest include the Philippines at 38th spot with 4,037,547 cases (+1,238 new cases), Singapore at 45th spot with 2,169,201 (+1,304), Myanmar at 83rd spot with 633,261 (+16), Brunei at 110th spot with 241,044 (no information on new cases), Laos at 113th spot with 216,744 (+51) and Cambodia at 125th spot with 138,106 (+7).
According to Worldometer, total Covid-19 cases globally stood at 648,502,557 (previous week at 645,602,109) with 6,642,532 deaths (6,635,134 deaths previously). A total of 626,258,602 recovered cases were reported from 624,295,755 previously.
Covid-19 was detected in Malaysia on Jan 25, 2020, when three Chinese citizens, who had entered Malaysia through Johor from Singapore on Jan 23, tested positive for the disease.
New variants of the Covid-19 coronavirus have since emerged in the United Kingdom (identified as B117) in September 2020, South Africa (501Y.V2) in October 2020 and India (B.1.617), also in October 2020.
Cumulatively, Malaysia’s Covid-19 cases breached the one-million mark on July 25, 2021, with 1,013,438 cases.
