MCO day 220: Covid-19 deaths hits daily double digit for 1st time

PUTRAJAYA, 23 Oct 2020:

Malaysia’s daily death toll from Covid-19 recorded double digits for the first time today with 10 fatalities recorded, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah. This brings the overall tally to 214 fatalities to date.

New Covid-19 positive cases stood at 710 as at noon today, bringing the nation’s tally so far to 24,514 cases. Only one was an imported case, with the rest being local transmissions. The imported case involved a foreigner coming from Nepal.

“Sabah continued to record the highest number of cases, with 528, following the hard work put in to carry out active case detection in the state,” he said in a statement on the development of Covid-19 today.

He said Selangor recorded 62 new cases, followed by Penang (39 cases); Negeri Sembilan (37); Labuan (19); Kuala Lumpur (10); Perak and Johor (four each); Terengganu and Sarawak (two each); and Kedah and Pahang (one each).

On the 10 new death cases, Dr Noor Hisham said eight were recorded in Sabah while one each was reported in Kedah and Labuan.

“Deaths number 206, 207, 209, 210, 211, 212 and 213 involved Malaysians while fatalities number 205, 208 and 214 involved foreigners,” he said, adding that there were 467 recoveries today, taking the cumulative number of full recoveries to 15,884 cases.

Of the total, he said Sabah recorded the highest number of recoveries, with 246 cases, followed by Selangor (105 cases) and Kedah (74).

There are 90 cases currently being treated in the intensive care unit, with 28 requiring ventilator assistance.

He said the Ministry of Health (MoH) had also detected three new clusters, namely the Samudera Cluster in Sabah, Palma Cluster in Selangor and Jaya Cluster in Selangor/Negeri Sembilan.

‘’The Samudera Cluster involves the district of Sandakan district in Sabah. The index case for the cluster (namely, the 22,612nd case) was identified Covid-19 positive following the screening of a symptomatic individual on Oct 20 who was admitted to the Duchess of Kent Hospital.

‘’The screening of close contacts identified seven more Covid-19 positive cases. As of noon today, eight individuals were screened with eight cases identified as positive (including two new cases today).”

Meanwhile, the Palma Cluster involved the Gombak and Hulu Selangor districts in Selangor and the Kepong district in Kuala Lumpur.

Dr Noor Hisham said the index case (namely, the 20,399th case) was identified positive following the screening of an individual with symptoms on Oct 17 who was admitted at the Sungai Buloh Hospital.

He said a screening of close contacts identified 12 more positive cases, and 101 individuals were screened until noon today, with 13 identified Covid-19 positive (nine new cases) and 88 individuals still waiting for results.

Dr Noor Hisham said the Jaya Cluster involved the Sepang district in Selangor and the Seremban district in Negeri Sembilan with nine cases identified as positive as of today.

He said the index case for the cluster was identified Covid-19 positive following a screening at the work place on Oct 20 and was warded at the Sungai Buloh Hospital.

A total 48 individuals had been screened while 39 were waiting for their results, he added.

– Bernama