PUTRAJAYA JULY 13: Malaysia has recorded 11,079 new COVID-19 cases today being the highest since the pandemic started in 2020 and this is in line with the targeted screening tests in the states imposed with the Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO).
Director General of Health, Tan Sri Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah said, starting from 6th -12th July 2021, 825,373 tests had been carried out including RT-PCR and RTK-Ag. The drastic difference happened when the total of tests on 29th June-5th July 2021 had reached 624,645 an increase of 32 per cent.
“The highest daily tests within two weeks had also been reported on 12th July 2021. The use of RTK-Ag on 12th July 2021 had increased to 56.4 per cent fromthe whole daily tests,” Dr. Noor Hisham said in a special press conference held with the Minister of Health, Datuk Seri Dr. Adham Baba here today.
He added, today the screening tests had increased from 80,000 to 100,000 and with additional new places for the tests the rates could reach 120,000 a day.
Dr. Noor Hisham said, even though the new COVID-19 cases is very high todaybut 80 per cent are in category 1 and 2 and they have been separated to prevent infectivity in the community.
“The targeted screening tests were mostly carried out in the factories and work places. About 85 per cent of the workers detected with positive COVID-19 are in category 1 and 2 while 15 per cent in category 3, 4 and 5.
“The category 4 patients will take 14 days for treatment while the category 5 will extend to 21 days in the hospital. When there is a surge in COVID-19 casesthen the problem of not enough beds will arise.
Regarding the high new COVID-19 cases today in Selangor with 5,263 cases, Dr. Noor Hisham said, the government has increased 151 beds in the Tuanku Ampuan Rahimah Hospital (HTAR) and readjust the beds for category 3 and 4 patients and some have been sent to the district hospitals if there is vacancy.
The contributing factor for the high COVID-19 cases today is also due to Kuala Lumpur having 1,521 cases while Negeri Sembilan with 1.033.
Dr. Noor Hisham highlighted that the patients in category 4 needs oxygen whilein category 5 need respiratory aids.
The problem arose when all of a sudden many patients were admitted to the emergency wards and in the past two or three days there had been a surge in cases to the extent some patients have been referred to the private hospitals.
He added, there has been an addition of new variants in the community such as Variant of Concerns (VOC) including Beta Variant 195 had been detected, Delta Variant (67), Alpha Variant (11) while Variant of Interest (VOI) includes Theta Variant (13) Kappa (4) and Eta (3).
Dr. Noor Hisham said, these new variants had high infectivity rate, spread fasterand more aggressive and this had caused a surge in new COVID-19 cases in certain states in the country. –Malaysia World News
