PUTRAJAYA MAY 17: Malaysia records 45 deaths today due to COVID-19 infection being the highest since the outbreak of the pandemic bringing the death toll to 1,947 or 0.41 percent with 4,446 new cases adding the grand total to 474,556.
Director General of Health, Tan Sri Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah said, the deaths include 20 cases in Selangor four each in Kuala Lumpur and Kelantan, three each in Kedah, Perak and Johor, two each in Negeri Sembilan and Melaka, and one each in Pahang, Pulau Pinang, Sarawak and Sabah.
From the new cases, three were imported involving Malaysians while 4,230 (95.2%) local transmissions had affected the citizens and 213 (4.8%) non-citizens
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Meanwhile 522 were admitted to the Intensive Care Units (ICU) with 273 needed respiratory aids while 43.506 active cases had been isolated and under treatment in the hospitals nationwide. However 2,784 or 90.4 percent have been discharged adding the cumulative total to 429,105.
“Fourteen new clusters were reported today including seven in the community affecting Kelantan (3), Pahang (2), Sabah (1), Sarawak (1) while religious cluster one each in Selangor, Johor, Sabah, Perak/Kuala Lumpur while clusters at work places in Selangor (2) and Kedah (1),” Dr. Noor Hisham said in a statement here today.
In another development Dr. Noor Hisham said, through the genomic surveillance that was conducted by the Institute Medical Research (IMR) on 10 samples of COVID-19 from 10th May until 14th May 2021, sevenVariant of Concern (VOC) had been detected.
Dr. Noor Hisham added, four local cases had been infected with South African B.1.351 variant in Kuala Lumpur while three affecting non-citizens were infected with Indian B.1.617 (sublineage B.1.617.2).
“To date, the total of COVID-19 infected with South African B.1.351 variant is 66 cases and Indian variant B.1.671 (including sublineage B.1.617 and B.1.617.2) with five cases,” Dr. Noor Hisham said.
States contributing to new COVID-19 cases today are Selangor with 1,650, Sabah (60), Johor (391), Kuala Lumpur (297), Sarawak (433), Pulau Pinang (159), Negeri Sembilan (243), Kelantan (343), Perak (203), Kedah (236), Melaka (80), Pahang (139), Terengganu (201), Labuan (0), Putrajaya (11) and Perlis (0). –Malaysia World News
