Covid-19 (Nov 8): 852 new cases, ending five-day streak of above 1,000 cases

COVID-19 | The Health Ministry today reported  852 new Covid-19 cases, breaking the previous five-day streak in which new daily infections were above the 1,000 mark.

This brings the cumulative cases to 40,209, crossing the 40,000 mark for the first time. Meanwhile, the cumulative recoveries stand at 28,234.

Leading indicators in brief:

Active cases =  11,689 ↑ (23 more than previous day) 

Patients in intensive care = 94 ↑ (Seven more than since yesterday) 

Intubated patients = 32 (Unchanged)

Deaths = 4 ↑ (One more than yesterday)

Recoveries = 825 ↓ (204 less than yesterday)

Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, in a statement, said 61.5 percent of the new cases were from Sabah while 19.9 percent were from the Klang Valley.

He also reported four deaths with two from Sabah and one from Perak and Kedah respectively. The death toll now stands at 286.

Details of the reported deaths are as follows:

Death 283 (Case 35,983): 66-year-old male. Died at Hospital Duchess of Kent, Sabah. Had a history of heart disease.

Death 284 (Case 18,815): 81-year-old female. Died at Hospital Tawau, Sabah. Had a history of high blood pressure and breast cancer.

Death 285 (Case 16,848): 62-year-old male. Died at Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun in Ipoh, Perak. 

Death 286 (Case 34,174): 62-year-old female. Died at Penang Hospital. Had a history of diabetes, high blood pressure and chronic kidney disease. She is the index case of the Permatang cluster, which recorded 42 cases to date. The cluster involves the districts of Kulim in Kedah and Seberang Perai in Penang.

Of the 852 new cases today, 13 were imported.

They involved eight Malaysians and five non-citizens returning from Indonesia (three), Saudi Arabia (three), Nepal (two), Morocco (one), United Arab Emirates (one), United Kingdom (one), Turkey (one) and South Korea (one).

Following is the breakdown of the locally-transmitted infections today:

Sabah (524)

Existing clusters: 89
Close contact screenings: 338
Other screenings: 97

Selangor (136)
Existing clusters: 43
New cluster: one (Ikhtisas cluster)
Close contact screenings: 44
Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI) screening: one
Other screenings: 46

Negeri Sembilan (104)
Existing cluster: 86
New cluster: Seven (Ikhtisas cluster)
Close contact screenings: Eight
SARI screening: One
Other screenings: Two

Labuan (23)
Existing clusters: Two
Close contact screenings: One
Other screenings: 20

Penang (18)
Existing clusters: 17
Close contact screenings: One

Kuala Lumpur (11)
Existing cluster: One
Close contact screenings: Six
Other screenings: Four

Perak (7)
Existing clusters: Seven

Malacca (5)
New cluster: Three (Berendam Kluster)
Close contact screenings: Two

Kedah (3)
Existing clusters: Two
Other screenings: One

Kelantan (2)
Other screenings: Two

Sarawak (2)
Other screenings: Two

Putrajaya (2)
Existing clusters: Two

Johor (1)
Sabah returnee screening: One

Terengganu (1)
Existing clusters: One

Two new clusters were reported while another two clusters were declared over.

The concluded clusters are Putra cluster (five cases) and Kuarters cluster (nine cases).

The two new clusters are the Ikhtisas cluster involving the districts of Petaling and Klang in Selangor, Jeli in Kelantan and Seremban in Negeri Sembilan and the Berendam cluster involving the districts of Alor Gajah and Melaka Tengah in Malacca.

The Ikhtisas cluster was traced to Patient 33,122 on Oct 29. The patient has been admitted to the Sungai Buloh hospital. A screening of the patient's close contacts found another 21 cases, bringing the total infections in this cluster to 22.

Eight of those cases were reported today. A total of 362 people were tested with 127 people still awaiting results.

The Berendam cluster was traced to Patient 32,489 and Patient 39,353. They were discovered through screening of symptomatic individuals.

A screening of their close contacts found another five cases, three of which were reported today.

Authorities have tested 1,861 people in this cluster and 1,744 people are still awaiting results.