This article first appeared in The Edge Financial Daily on April 1, 2020 - April 7, 2020

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia recorded 140 new Covid-19 cases as of noon yesterday, bringing the total to 2,766. There were six new deaths, raising the death toll to 43 or 1.55% of total cases.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said another 58 patients were discharged, bringing total recoveries to 537 or 19.4% of total cases.

Ninety-four patients are in the intensive care unit (ICU), and 60 people in the ICU require ventilators, he said in a statement.

Noor Hisham said the latest deaths include a 48-year-old Malaysian woman with a history of high blood pressure and had contact with patient 2,750. She was treated at Hospital Tuanku Jaafar in Seremban and passed away at 4.04pm yesterday.

The 39th death is a 69-year-old Malaysian man with a history of high blood pressure and diabetes. He had travelled to Saudi Arabia and passed away on March 27.

The next death is a 69-year-old Malaysian man with a history of high blood pressure and diabetes. He was treated at Hospital Enche’ Besar Hajjah Kalsom in Kluang, Johor and passed away on March 26 at 1.03pm.

The remaining three deaths are a 40-year-old Indonesian man, an 81-year-old Malaysian man and a 73-year-old Malaysian man.

“The health ministry conveys its condolences to their family members,” Noor Hisham said.

Selangor still has the highest number of cases at 704, followed by Kuala Lumpur (430), Johor (349) and Sabah (206).

Two weeks of movement control order

Noor Hisham said the daily trend during the first two weeks of the movement control order (MCO) showed rising new cases, and occasionally sideways. Daily discharged patients also increased, he told a news conference.

“However, the next two weeks are important [as they] will determine whether the government's action has had the desired impact. This is closely related to society’s behaviour in abiding with the MCO rule,” he added.

Noor Hisham said statistics also revealed the highest number of Covid-19 cases are in the 26 to 30 and 56 to 60 age groups.

“The young people may be students or others returning from abroad, or they may have been going out frequently during the MCO period to meet up.

“The second category could be heads of households going out often to buy essential items and so on. They may have been infected on these trips.”