Covid 19 Total Cases Speeding Towards Half A Million Mark

---

 



This is a round-up of Covid-19 related matters in Malaysia and globally from May 15 up to noon today. In Malaysia, case numbers are nearing 500,000 and globally, the virus has infected almost 165 million people and caused over 3.4 million deaths. More than 216 countries and territories are affected by the pandemic.

Malaysia’s record-breaking figures in terms of the new daily cases recorded over the last two days have triggered fears that new infections may spike to 10,000 a day.
Transmissions 'picked up steam' with the arrival of new and more aggressive Covid-19 variants from the United Kingdom, South Africa, and India which have already been detected in the community in Malaysia.
Even Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin aired his concern in his recent Hari Raya Aidilfitri message. “Malaysia is now at a critical point. The number of (new) daily cases is expected to touch five figures in the next few weeks,” he warned.
Malaysia’s cumulative total Covid-19 cases are fast approaching the 500,000- mark while its active cases have reached 50,171.
The last time its active caseload exceeded 50,000 was earlier this year (Feb 6) when it touched 50,894.
Over the last 24 hours up to noon yesterday, another hefty 6,806 new infections – the highest since the Covid-19 outbreak was first detected in Malaysia in January 2020 – were added to Malaysia’s total cases which now stood at 492,302. Selangor, as usual, was the biggest contributor at 2,277 cases.
On May 19, another record-breaking 6,075 new cases were reported. Prior to this, the highest number of new cases registered in a single day was on Jan 30 this year (5,728), with Selangor accounting for 3,285 of the infections.
Following is the breakdown of new cases reported over the week under review (May 15 to 20): May 15 (4,140), May 16 (3,780), May 17 (4,446), May 18 (4,865), May 19 (6,075), and May 20 (6,806).
The Ministry of Health has also shared its concern over the sharp spike in new cases in recent weeks as its intensive care unit (ICU) resources are being stretched to accommodate the increase in Covid-19 patients requiring critical care and respiratory support.
Yesterday, 587 patients were in the ICU with 330 needing ventilators.




Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah
In a post in his personal Facebook account on May 18, Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah grimly noted that as of May 18, the Covid-19 critical care bed/ICU utilisation rate in the Klang Valley had reached 89 percent and 74 percent overall.
“The states of Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Penang, Kedah, Sarawak, and Negeri Sembilan recorded utilisation of Covid-19 ICU beds of more than 80 percent. Covid-19 hospitals have increased the number of ICU beds allocated for patients through the re-purposing of ordinary wards. However, this has also reduced the chances of non-Covid-19 patients receiving proper critical care.
“This dramatic increase in cases has put tremendous pressure on the national healthcare system, and it’s our shared responsibility to break the transmission chain of Covid-19.
“Now more than ever, the rakyat are important frontliners and must continue staying at home if there are no urgent matters outside. We have no choice, kita mesti jaga kita (we must protect ourselves)!” he wrote.
With its 492,302 total cases, Malaysia now stood at the 42nd spot in the list of 216 countries affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. Just ahead of Malaysia is Morocco (515,758 cases) and behind it is Nepal (488,645).
Rise in fatalities
Malaysia’s Covid-19 death toll has also, of late, seen a sharp increase. Yesterday, 59 deaths were reported – the highest-ever single-day figure – pushing the nation’s total number of fatalities to 2,099.
Yesterday, Johor reported the highest number of deaths at 14, followed by Selangor (10); Kuala Lumpur (eight); Kelantan (six); Kedah, Perak and Terengganu (three each); Sarawak (two); and Sabah and Penang (one each).
Following is the daily breakdown of Covid-19 deaths reported from May 15 to 20: May 15 (44); May 16 (36); May 17 (45); May 18 (47); May 19 (46); and May 20 (59).
A movement control order is currently in force nationwide from May 12 to June 7. Interstate and inter-district travel is also banned except for emergency, health, work, economic and vaccination purposes, as well as for married couples living apart.
Spike in local transmissions
Local transmissions involving Malaysians accounted for over 90 percent of the new cases reported this week. Out of the 6,806 new infections recorded yesterday, 6,804 were local transmissions involving 6,122 Malaysians (90.0 percent) and 682 non-citizens. The two remaining cases were imported.
A breakdown of yesterday’s cases showed that 55.14 percent (3,752 cases) were from the screening of close contacts, 25.90 percent (1,762) from other screenings and 18.96 percent (1,290) from clusters while 0.03 percent (two) imported.
Following is the breakdown of locally transmitted cases and imported cases reported this week:
May 15: 4,140 new cases comprising 4,131 local transmissions and nine imported cases; 90.2 percent citizens and 9.8 percent non-citizens.
May 16: 3,780 new cases comprising 3,778 local transmissions and two imported cases; 91.1 percent citizens and 8.9 percent non-citizens.
May 17: 4,446 new cases comprising 4,443 local transmissions and three imported cases; 95.2 percent citizens and (4.8 percent non-citizens.
May 18: 4,865 new cases comprising 4,860 local transmissions and five imported cases; 95.7 percent citizens and 4.3 percent non-citizens.
May 19: 6,075 new cases comprising 6,072 local transmissions and three imported cases; 89.8 percent citizens and 10.2 non-citizens.
May 20: 6,806 new cases comprising 6,804 local transmissions and two imported case; 90.0 percent citizens and 10.0 percent non-citizens.
Meanwhile, 3,916 cases recovered yesterday, bringing the total number of recovered cases to 440,032 (89.4 percent of total cases).
Still many new clusters
Between May 15 and 20, another 24 new clusters were announced, nine of them linked to the workplace, six religious, seven community, one education and one high-risk group.
The daily breakdown is as follows: May 15 (15 clusters), May 16 (11), May 17 (14), May 18 (19), May 19 (22) and May 20 (24).
As of May 20, the nation has reported a total of 1,942 clusters of which 1,426 have ended. A total of 516 clusters are still active.

 Noor Hisham wrote in his personal Facebook account yesterday that the Covid-19 infectivity rate or R0/Rt value stood at 1.13 nationwide yesterday. The state with the highest R0 was Perlis (1.39), followed by Terengganu (1.31) and Kedah (1.29).

In order to flatten the Covid-19 infection curve, the R0 value need to be maintained at a consistent 0.5.
Yesterday's case details
This week, Selangor continued to account for a bulk of the new cases recorded daily nationwide. Yesterday, it reported 2,277 new infections, 1,510 of which comprised close contacts.
Selangor’s breakdown of new daily cases this week is as follows: May 15 (1,507), May 16 (1,275), May 17 (1,650), May 18 (1,743), May 19 (2,251) and May 20 (2,277).
Twelve states recorded three-digit new cases yesterday, namely Kuala Lumpur (655), Johor (615), Sarawak (608), Kelantan (426), Kedah (417), Penang (362), Negeri Sembilan (291), Perak (247), Sabah 245, Terengganu (233), Malacca (212) and Pahang (157).
Putrajaya and Labuan recorded 35 and 17 new cases respectively while Perlis only reported eight cases.
Global Covid-19 statistics
The total number of Covid-19 cases worldwide, according to Worldometer, at the time of writing this article stood at 165,842,599 (161,929,910 cases at the same time last Friday) and deaths 3,444,656 (3,360,935 last Friday). The total number of recoveries stood at 146,520,099.
Some 216 countries are affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and those in the top 10 of the list are the United States, India, Brazil, France, Turkey, Russia, the United Kingdom, Italy, Germany and Spain. The breakdown is as follows: United States 33,833,181 cases (602,616 deaths); India 26,030,674 (291,365); Brazil 15,898,558 (444,391); France 5,568,551 (108,314); Turkey 5,160,423 (45,626); Russia 4,974,908 (117,361); United Kingdom 4,455,221 (127,701); Italy 4,178,261 (124,810); Germany 3,638,504 (87,639); and Spain 3,631,661 (79,601).
China, where the outbreak was first reported at end-December 2019, is now on the 98th spot in the list of countries affected by Covid-19 with 90,944 cases while its death toll remained at 4,636.
Besides Malaysia, the three other Southeast Asian nations that have joined the list of 88 countries with more than 100,000 cases are Indonesia (18th spot) with 1,758,898 cases and 48,887 deaths, the Philippines (24th spot) with 1,165,155 cases and 19,641 deaths, and Myanmar (83rd spot) with 143,183 cases and 3,216 deaths.
Thailand has reported 143,183 cases and 703 deaths; Singapore 60,575 cases and 30 deaths; Cambodia 23,697 cases and 164 deaths; Vietnam 2,668 cases and 35 deaths; and Cambodia 4,809 cases and 39 deaths.
In Laos, total cases have risen to 1,751 and deaths two, while Brunei’s tally stands at 235 cases and three deaths.
Covid-19 background
The World Health Organisation’s China country office was informed of cases of pneumonia that were detected in Wuhan on Dec 31, 2019. On Jan 7, the Chinese authorities confirmed that the newly detected novel coronavirus can be transmitted from human to human.
Coronaviruses are a large family of viruses that cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases such as Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS) and Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-COV).




World Health Organisation headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland.
A study of the virus’ genetic sequence suggested similarities to that seen in snakes and bats. China health officials identified the Huanan Seafood Market in Wuhan as the source of the transmission of the coronavirus.
On Feb 11, 2020, WHO announced the official name of the virus, Covid-19, which is an acronym for coronavirus 2019 – CO stands for corona, VI for virus and D for disease.
On Jan 30, 2020, WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak as a global emergency and on March 11, Covid-19 was declared a pandemic.
WHO has described the Covid-19 outbreak as much more dangerous than the A H1N1 Influenza, also known as Swine Flu.
Swine Flu, which occurred between January 2009 and August 2010, infected more than 1.6 million people and caused 18,449 fatalities. It was first detected in Mexico and later in the United States in March 2009.
Covid-19 was detected in Malaysia on Jan 25, 2020, when three Chinese citizens, who had entered Malaysia through Johor from Singapore on Jan 23, were tested positive for the disease.
New variants of the Covid-19 coronavirus have since emerged in the United Kingdom (identified as B117) in September 2020, South Africa (501Y.V2) in October 2020 and India (B.1.617), also in October last year.
- Bernama

---