Health System Still Under Strain As Daily Cases Hit 5 Digits

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Covid-19 assessment will now be conducted virtually to avoid long lines like the one at Stadium Malawati on Monday. (Twitter abangridhwan Pic)PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s healthcare system remains stretched to its limits, with the number of daily cases consistently hitting five digits.
An alarming total of 78,660 Covid-19 infections were reported between July 11 and July 17, with a record high of 13,215 cases on Thursday.
More than half the cases this past week were in the Klang Valley.
There were also 799 deaths during the week, taking the toll to 6,866, with the 138 deaths reported yesterday being the highest daily number since the start of the pandemic.
There were also 42,068 recoveries, a slight increase over the 36,888 recorded the week before.
Some 119,814 people are still being treated, including 908 in intensive care and 425 requiring respiratory assistance.
A total of 175 new clusters were also reported, while Malaysia’s infectivity rate increased from 1.11 to 1.19 in the past week.
As of July 16, 13.6 million people had received at least one vaccine dose since the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme kicked off.
FMT takes a brief look at the major headlines on Covid-19 over the past week.
EMCO lifted in Selangor and KL
The enhanced movement control order in several localities in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur was lifted on July 16.
The strict lockdown came into effect on July 3 and was slated to last for two weeks.
Both areas have since returned to Phase 1 of the national recovery plan.
Covid-19 assessment to go virtual
The health ministry announced that virtual Covid-19 assessment centres (CACs) would be set up to manage Category 1 and 2 patients. These are cases who have mild to no symptoms.
The ministry’s Klang Valley task force chief Dr Chong Chee Kheong said all monitoring would be done online, with a digital home surveillance order (HSO) to be issued through the MySejahtera mobile app.
This comes after reports that CACs in the Klang Valley were packed with people, particularly the one at Stadium Malawati that saw around 4,000 infected patients visiting the centre between 8am and noon on Monday.
DG warns of more cases next fortnight
On the day the number of Covid-19 cases breached the 11,000 mark for the first time, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah warned that infections would continue increasing over the next two weeks.
This is due to the more infectious Delta variant of the virus, which has been detected in every state, he said.
He also explained that the surge in cases in Negeri Sembilan and Klang Valley was mainly because of targeted screenings at workplaces and areas under EMCO.
Government forms national recovery council
Putrajaya formed a national recovery council to replace the special Cabinet committee that had been tasked to manage the national recovery plan.
Finance minister Tengku Zafrul Aziz said the council would rope in representatives from the private sector, industry experts and non-governmental organisations. Improvements to SOPs would be made based on feedback from subject matter experts, he added.
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said the easing of restrictions for fully vaccinated individuals would also be decided at the council meeting next week.
All adults in Selangor, KL to get first vaccine dose by Aug 1
Vaccinations minister Khairy Jamaluddin said every Selangor and Kuala Lumpur citizen over the age of 18 would receive at least one dose of the vaccine by Aug 1.
He said the authorities were preparing to increase the vaccination rate in both areas following the recent spike in cases.
Walk-in vaccinations for senior citizens above the age of 60 in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur have also begun.
Malaysia to stop using Sinovac
At a news conference with other top ministry officials, health minister Dr Adham Baba said Malaysia would stop administering China’s Sinovac vaccine when the supply of the vaccine ends as it had a sufficient number of other vaccines under its porfolio.
The health minister said Malaysia’s inoculation programme would be largely led by the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine from now. - FMT

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