KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysian health authorities reported 184 additional confirmed cases of the new coronavirus on Saturday (Apr 11), raising the cumulative tally to 4,530, the highest number for any country in Southeast Asia.
The latest data includes three new deaths, raising total fatalities from the outbreak to 73.
Health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah said the 71st fatality (Case 3,091) was a 66-year-old Malaysian man with a history of diabetes, high blood pressure and gout.
“He was a close contact of a COVID-19 patient (Case 452) from the Seri Petaling cluster. He was admitted to Hospital Tuanku Ja’afar, Negeri Sembilan on Apr 1, 2020 and was confirmed to have died at 12.05pm on Saturday,” he said.
“The 72nd death (Case 537) involved a 71-year-old Malaysian man with a history of diabetes, high blood pressure and heart disease.
“He had been treated at the Sungai Buloh Hospital, Selangor since Mar 15, 2020 and was confirmed to have died at 11.15am on Saturday.”
The 73rd death (Case 2,399) was a 63-year-old Malaysian man who had a history of high blood pressure, said Dr Noor Hisham.
“He was admitted to Hospital Raja Permaisuri Bainun, Ipoh in Perak on Mar 25, 2020 and died at noon on Saturday.”
Dr Noor Hisham said 165 cases had recovered and were discharged on Saturday, raising the cumulative total of recoveries to 1,995, or 44 per cent of the total number of cases.
He said 72 cases were still being treated in intensive care, with 38 of them requiring ventilators.
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Malaysia on Friday announced a further extension of its movement control order (MCO) by another 14 days until Apr 28.
Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in a live address that the MCO had helped to reduce the spread of COVID-19, and the growth of positive cases had been controlled to a rate of 7 per cent, below the 10 per cent benchmark set by the World Health Organization.
“The number of (daily) positive cases has also decreased. If this trend continues for the next two weeks, we can prevent COVID-19 from spreading. But we cannot take the situation lightly.
“The war is not over, the fight is still on,” he said.
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