Covid-19 (Oct 30): 799 new infections, 3 deaths and active cases reach new high

COVID-19 | The Health Ministry today reported 799 new Covid-19 cases and three deaths, while four states - Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Malacca - did not report any new cases.

Leading indicators in brief:

• Active cases = 10,392 ↑ (new record)

• Patients in intensive care = 90 ↑ (1 more than previous day)

• Intubated patients = 20 ↓ (12 fewer than previous day)

• Deaths = 3

All three deaths were reported in Sabah. The Covid-19 death toll for Sabah is 117 or 47 percent of the national death toll (249).

For the month of October alone, 104 individuals have died from the disease in Sabah.

Two of the victims - both foreign nationals - had case numbers which indicated they died very soon after or before their Covid-19 test results were returned.

Patient 11,862, a local, was likely to have been hospitalised at the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu since Oct 1 or Oct 2 before passing away sometime over the past 24 hours ending noon today.

Sabah continued to report the highest number of new infections (466) followed by Klang Valley territories (170) and Labuan (65).

All 799 new cases were from local transmissions. 

A breakdown of the new cases are as follows:

Sabah (466 new cases)

- Existing clusters - 56 cases

- Rumah Merah, Telipok and Sembulan clusters (all new) - 70 cases

- Close contact screening - 193 cases

- Other types of screening - 147 cases

Selangor (150 new cases)

- Existing clusters - 40 cases

- Merpati and Astaka clusters - 76 cases

- Close contact screening - 22 cases

- Other types of screening - 12 cases

Labuan (65 new cases)

- Existing clusters - 43 cases

- Titian cluster - 11 cases

- Close contact screening - 11 cases

Penang (35 new cases)

- Existing clusters - 29 cases

- Close contact screening - 5 cases

- Other types of screening - 1 case

Negeri Sembilan (23 new cases)

- Existing clusters - 18 cases

- Gala cluster - 2 cases

- Close contact screening - 1 case

- Other types of screening - 2 cases

Kuala Lumpur (19 new cases)

- Existing cluster - 8 cases

- Close contact screening - 8 cases

- Other types of screening - 3 cases

Sarawak (16 new cases)

- Existing clusters - 9 cases

- Screening of individuals with symptoms - 2 cases

- Other types of screening - 5 cases

Perak (10 new cases)

- Existing clusters - 9 cases

- Other types of screening - 1 case

Johor (9 new cases)

- Existing clusters - 4 cases

- Meldrum cluster - 5 cases

Kedah (5 new cases)

- Existing clusters - 5 cases

Putrajaya (1 new case)

- Other types of screening - 1 case

At a press briefing today, Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the country's 61 laboratories could conduct 58,666 tests and 28,936 of them were conducted yesterday (53 percent).

Sabah had three laboratories capable of processing 2,700 samples a day. Yesterday, 2,515 samples were processed (93 percent).

The cumulative positivity rate for Covid-19 tests in Sabah was 5.1 percent, which was significantly higher than the national rate of 1.6 percent.

Eight new clusters were reported, of which three involved the Kota Kinabalu district in Sabah.

The Merah cluster (56 cases) involved a temporary detention centre while the index case for the Telipok cluster (10 cases) was discovered after screening at the person's workplace. The Sembulan cluster was discovered after the index case reported symptoms on Oct 24.

The Merpati cluster involved the Sepang, Gombak and Kuala Langat district in Selangor where 45 individuals have tested positive. The index case was discovered after workplace screening.

The Astaka cluster involved the Petaling, Hulu Langat and Kuala Selangor districts in Selangor where 32 individuals have tested positive. The index case was discovered after reporting symptoms on Oct 27.

The Titian cluster was discovered after screening an entire community in Kampung Muslim in Labuan on Oct 29. So far, 11 individuals have tested positive while 413 are waiting for their test results.

The Gala cluster involved the Seremban and Jelebu districts in Negeri Sembilan. This cluster was discovered after screening of health workers. Eight cases have been attributed to this cluster so far.

The Meldrum cluster involved the Johor Bahru, Kota Tinggi and Tangkak districts in Johor. The index case had reported symptoms on Oct 29. So far, six cases have been attributed to this cluster.