M'sia records 16 new Covid-19 cases, lowest in two months

CORONAVIRUS | Malaysia today recorded 16 new Covid-19 cases, the lowest in two months, according to Health Ministry (MOH) director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

The last time the country recorded such a low number of daily cases was before it went into a partial lockdown.

The next lowest daily case recorded was on March 12 with nine cases.

According to Noor Hisham, nine of the 16 new cases recorded today involved foreigners.

"Of the 16 new cases today, three are imported while 13 are local transmission," he told a press conference in Putrajaya.

Today is also the first time the Sri Petaling religious gathering cluster, the epicentre of the Covid-19 outbreak in the country, did not record any new case since March 11.

He also reported that another 110 Covid-19 patients have recovered.

This brings the total recoveries to 5,223 cases or 77.5 percent of total cases.

No new fatalities were reported today and the death toll remains at 109, a mortality rate of 1.62 percent.

Noor Hisham said 1,410 patients are still under treatment and of this, 16 are warded in the intensive care unit (ICU). Of the 16, three need a ventilator to breathe.

On testing, he said 17,788 Covid-19 tests have been performed yesterday, which is 86.2 percent of the daily capacity of 20,635 tests per day.

He also said the Health Ministry continued to conduct surveillance on sporadic Covid-19 cases and the detection rate has shown a reduction.

Noor Hisham, in his daily briefing today, also thanked nurses for their contributions in conjunction with the International Nurses Day.

He again urged Malaysians to play a role in combating Covid-19 by practising social distancing and good hygiene.