PUTRAJAYA — The number of new positive COVID-19 cases has returned to three digits at 105, bringing the cumulative figure in the country to 6,176 cases, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
However, another 116 cases have recovered and were discharged today, raising the total number of recoveries to 4,326, he said.
He said the number of active COVID-19 cases with infectivity was 1,747.
He said of the 105 new cases reported as of noon today, 11 were imported cases and 94 were from local transmission.
“Sixty cases were detected in localities under the Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO),” he told a daily COVID-19 media briefing here today.
He said 31 positive cases were being treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), with 12 of them requiring ventilator support.
The 105 new cases were the first three-digit figure reported since April 16.
Dr Noor Hisham also said no deaths were recorded in the 24-hour period until noon today, keeping the death toll at 103, or 1.67 per cent of the total number of positive cases.
He said the Movement Control Order (MCO) had helped to flatten the COVID-19 curve, especially following the imposition of the Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) in 11 high-risk localities.
“From this, 607 positive COVID-19 cases were detected from 29,067 cases screened (2.1 per cent). Second was the detection of the assembly cluster in Seri Petaling where 2,220 positive cases were confirmed out of 34,503 samples taken (6.4 per cent).
“Third was the detection of students and staff of madrasah and tahfiz linked to the Seri Petaling assembly, where 378 positive cases were confirmed from the 8,030 samples tested (4.7 per cent),” he said.
Dr Noor Hisham also said 274 or 1.05 per cent of the 26,169 Malaysians placed in quarantine after their return from overseas since April 3 had been tested positive for the coronavirus.
Dr Noor Hisham said that lately imported cases and those detected in EMCO areas had been showing an increasing trend among the daily confirmed cases.
However, the people need not be unduly worried over this development because these cases, especially the imported ones, had been isolated early on for screening, he added.
Dr Noor Hisham said clinical surveillance activities, including the taking of samples from Influenza-Like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) patients at all Health Ministry (MOH) hospitals, had been conducted to curb the spread of COVID-19 in the local community.
“As of yesterday, 7,880 COVID-19 screenings in clinical surveillance activities have been conducted, where 12 cases were detected among ILI (0.81 per cent) and 54 cases among SARI patients (0.84 per cent).
“COVID-19 tests were also conducted on all patients before emergency and semi-emergency surgeries at MOH hospitals, and only five positive cases were detected among 5,435 patients in the same period (until May 1), he added.
— BERNAMA
