KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 2): August 2021 has been the worst month ever for Malaysia since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the country last year, despite having one of the fastest vaccination rates in the world.

A record total of 632,982 new infections were detected throughout the month, as daily cases regularly came in above 20,000 since it breached that mark for the first time on Aug 5 with 20,596 infections — and hit an all-time high of 24,599 cases on Aug 24.

The month's infections were discovered from the testing of 4.57 million individuals across the country, 26.9% more than the 3.6 million tests conducted in July (361,293 infections reported) and 83.5% more than the 2.49 million done in June (179,622 infections).

Prior to that, 163,645 infections were detected in May; 63,213 infections in April; 44,748 infections in March; 85,793 infections in February; and 101,949 in January.

The surge of infections came as more cases of the highly infectious Delta variant were discovered, and came right after the state of emergency was lifted in early August, as restrictions were also eased for fully vaccinated individuals, as well as those who live in states under Phase 2 and beyond of the National Recovery Plan.

A total of 619,310 or 97.84% of the monthly cases exhibited little to no symptoms.

Active cases jumped 41.3% to 267,863 at end-August from 189,609 as at end-July, as monthly recoveries came in lower than new infections, at 547,088. The latest tally is now over three times the 64,129 recorded as of June 30.

As of Aug 31, total recoveries stood at 1.46 million versus 1.75 million total confirmed infections.

The country also reported a record monthly high of 7,640 Covid-19 related deaths in August, almost double the 3,854 recorded in July.

Daily fatalities breached the 300-mark for the first time on Aug 8, with 360 deaths. The figure touched a new record high of 393 on Aug 26.

Of the monthly fatalities, 1,577 cases or 20.6% were brought-in-dead (BID) cases. As of Aug 31, cumulative BID cases stood at 2,638, 15.8% of the total 16,664 Covid-19 fatalities.

Notably, Sabah reported 62,359 new infections in August, four times the previous month’s 15,276. The 47,083 month-on-month (m-o-m) jump in cases surpassed that of Selangor's, which recorded 196,576 new infections — up 37,908 or 23.9% m-o-m from the 158,668 cases seen in July.

The third highest increase was seen in Kedah, which reported 52,673 cases (up 34,103 from 18,570 in July); followed by Penang with 40,295 cases (up 28,957 from 11,338); Johor with 47,515 cases (up 27,656 from 19,859); Sarawak had 39,276 cases (up 27,399 from 11,877); Kelantan had 34,428 cases (up 26,245 from 8,183); Perak had 30,205 cases (up 19,154 from 11,051); Terengganu had 16,395 cases (up 10,648 from 5,747); Pahang had 19,602 cases (up 8,832 from 10,770); Kuala Lumpur with 50,212 cases (up 4,863 from 45,349); Melaka had 17,170 (up 4,219 from 12,951); Perlis had 1,245 cases (up 1,135 from 110) and Putrajaya had 1,457 cases (up 192 from 1,649).

Only Negeri Sembilan and Labuan saw a drop in monthly cases. Negeri Sembilan had 20,920 cases (down 5,691 from 26,611), while Labuan saw 148 cases (down 1,344 from 1,492).

Malaysia administered 13.6 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine in August, up 10.3% from July's 12.33 million and about 167.8% from June's 5.08 million doses. The country has doled out a total of 34.75 million Covid-19 vaccine doses since the vaccination programme started in late February.

As of Aug 31, 15.03 million people or 46% of the country's population were fully inoculated, while 19.74 million or 60.5% of the population had received at least one jab.

In the Klang Valley, 6.88 million people representing 81.7% of its population had received at least their first dose, including 5.7 million or 67.7% who were fully inoculated.