The Health Ministry today reported 563 new Covid-19 cases and two deaths over the past 24 hours.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said of the 563, only one was an imported case involving a local returnee from Indonesia.
He said this brings the total number of active cases to 5,039.
He added that out of the 562 local transmission cases, 498 cases involved locals while the remaining 64 cases involved foreigners.
Dr Noor Hisham said Sabah recorded the highest number of cases with 291 cases today due to high volume of screenings conducted in airports and the implementation of enhanced movement control order (EMCO) at certain parts of the state.
Apart from Sabah, Penang recorded 141 cases from the Penjara Reman cluster, Selangor (69), Kuala Lumpur (27), Negri Sembilan (12), Kedah (10), Perak (four), Johor, Putrajaya and Labuan recorded two cases respectively, while Sarawak and Melaka recorded one case each.
Dr Noor Hisham said the first deceased has been identified as a Malaysian female, 85, with a history of illnesses. She passed away at the Tawau hospital.
The second deceased is a foreign female, 48, who passed away at the Tuaran Hospital.
Dr Noor Hisham said the number of patients requiring intensive care has risen to 98, up from 90 yesterday, with the number of people requiring ventilator support remaining at 29.
The total number of infections to date stands at 16,220, while the national death toll is 159.
Dr Noor Hisham also revealed that the Health Ministry has detected six new Covid-19 clusters – Kuala Lumpur recorded two new clusters, while Sabah, Selangor, Johor and Putrajaya recorded one each.
The new clusters are the Baiduri and Bah Perdana clusters in Kuala Lumpur, Kolong cluster in Sabah, Bah Tropicana cluster in Selangor, Rinting cluster in Johor and finally, Bah Kasturi cluster in Putrajaya.
On the situation in Sabah, the Dr Noor Hisham said there was sufficient personal protective equipment (PPE) and added that the ministry will ensure it will be distributed to those in need as soon as possible.
He said the Health Ministry has also mobilised health workers from other states to Sabah to resolve the lack of staff after several health workers there were infected by the virus and required to undergo quarantine.
Meanwhile, the CMCO due to begin for the Klang Valley and Sabah is necessary to break the Covid-19 infection chain, said Dr Noor Hisham.
He pointed out that since the start of the Covid-19 third wave in the country, the nation has seen a consistent high number of new cases, especially in Sabah.
Dr Noor Hisham said while the Klang Valley seems under control, Covid-19 cases have been rising consistently.
“For Klang Valley, which consists of Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, despite daily cases being less than 100, new infections are consistently recorded daily, and these cases are spread out in all districts in Klang Valley with the exception of Sabak Bernam.
“We can no longer wait and see yellow zones slowly turning into red zones to then implement conditional movement control order or enhance movement control order,” he said.