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KUALA LUMPUR (Aug 27): Malaysia recorded 149,889 new Covid-19 infections in the week of Aug 21 to Aug 27, marking the seventh straight week of record cases.
It was a marginal increase from the 149,341 cumulative new cases reported the previous week.
The successive high came as the country reported over 24,000 daily infections for the first time on Thursday (Aug 26).
The Ministry of Health announced 24,599 new cases that day, before daily infections fell to 22,070 on Friday. It is worth noting that daily cases have regularly exceeded 20,000 since the start of August.
Despite new infections rising, the number of individuals who were tested during the week fell to 1.04 million, from 1.07 million people previously.
A total of 146,733 or 97.89% of the new cases exhibited little to no symptoms.
The breakdown of the weekly Covid-19 cases is as follows:
• 70,344 cases in Category 1 (no symptoms) (56,407 cases or 80.19% unvaccinated)
• 76,389 cases in Category 2 (mild symptoms)(61,843 cases or 80.96% unvaccinated)
• 1,367 cases in Category 3 (with pneumonia) (1,145 cases or 83.76% unvaccinated)
• 588 cases in Category 4 (with pneumonia and requiring oxygen therapy) (496 cases or 84.35% unvaccinated)
• 1,201 cases in Category 5 (critical and requiring assisted ventilation) (1,070 cases or 89.09% unvaccinated)
With the increase in new cases and as weekly recoveries lag new infections at 139,774 — albeit up from 131,366 last week — active cases which carry high transmission risks increased to 265,695, from last Friday’s 257,417.
To date, Malaysia's cumulative Covid-19 infections stood at 1.66 million since the pandemic struck the country in last January last year, versus 1.38 million total recoveries.
Record high weekly deaths, but BID cases fall
On the other hand, Covid-19 related deaths this week rose 5.27% to 1,837 — the highest number of weekly deaths yet — compared with 1,745 the week before.
The previous record of weekly deaths was 1,789 fatalities reported between Aug 7 and Aug 13.
Malaysia reported over 300 daily fatalities for two straight days. Daily fatalities hit an-all time high of 393, before falling to 339 on Friday.
However, weekly brought-in dead (BID) cases — Covid-19 patients died before reaching the hospital — declined 3.09% to 407, compared with 420 previously.
These raised cumulative BID deaths to 2,473, from 2,066 the week before. Total fatalities linked to the coronavirus so far stood at 15,550.
Klang Valley infections fall for third straight week; but other states see increase in cases
The Klang Valley, comprising Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, reported 48,199 Covid-19 cases this week, down 16.77% from last week’s 57,909. This is the third straight week of declining infections.
Selangor logged 40,532 cases, down from last week’s 46,739. Kuala Lumpur recorded 7,471 cases (down from 11,273 the week before), while Putrajaya saw 196 cases (from 257).
Although weekly infections in Klang Valley — which is under Phase 1 of the National Recovery Plan — saw a decline, other states that are in Phases 2 and 3 saw an increase of weekly Covid-19 cases.
Sabah’s weekly cases rose to 20,860 from 14,982 the prior week, as the state reported more than 3,000 cases for four straight days from Aug 24 to today.
These were followed by Kedah with 13,091 cases (from 12,768); Johor with 12,485 cases (from 10,078); Sarawak has 12,732 cases (from 9,246); Penang has 11,799 cases (from 9,933); Perlis has 410 cases (from 295); and Labuan has 39 cases (from 20).
Sabah and Penang are among states that are in Phase 2, while Perlis and Labuan are now in Phase 3.
In terms of cumulative infections, Selangor led the country with 545,120 cases; followed by Kuala Lumpur (162,302); Johor (117,990); and Sabah (116,667).
3.04 million vaccine doses administered this week
Malaysia’s administered cumulative Covid-19 vaccine doses dropped 10.41% to 3.04 million this week, as the country only delivered over 300,000 and 400,000 doses. In contrast, 3.4 million doses administered in the past week, with over 400,000 and 500,000 vaccine doses.
As of Aug 26, 33.04 million of Covid-19 vaccines had been administered nationwide. Of this, 18.95 million people or 58% of the nation’s population have received at least one dose of the vaccine, including the 14.09 million or 43.2% who had completed their two-dose regimen.
In the Klang Valley, a total of 6.79 million people or 80.6% of its total population had received at least one dose of the vaccine as of Aug 26, with 5.41 million people or 64.3% fully inoculated.