Malaysia reports a new daily high of 2,335 cases

[The_King]

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia recorded 2,335 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday (Dec 26), a new daily record.

Saturday's figure took the country's total to 103,900, said health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

 

Eleven new clusters were detected - the highest ever recorded in a day.

Kuala Lumpur logged the highest number of new COVID-19 cases with 728 infections.

Elsewhere in the country, the state of Selangor reported 710 new cases while the southern state of Johor had 412 infections. The eastern state of Sabah recorded 248 new COVID-19 cases.

Two fatalities were also reported on Saturday, taking the country's death toll from COVID-19 to 451.

 

A total of 108 COVID-19 patients are in the intensive care unit, with 50 requiring respiratory support, Dr Noor Hisham said.

Malaysia crossed the 100,000-mark on Thursday when 1,581 new COVID-19 cases were reported.

 

On Wednesday, Minister for Science, Technology and Innovation Khairy Jamaluddin said Malaysia was in talks to buy 6.4 million doses of Russia's Sputnik V COVID-19 vaccine and wants to increase its purchases of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine.

 

The country is also in final discussions with two Chinese vaccine makers and is drawing up plans to arrange ultra-cold storage in its tropical heat.

Malaysia is spending about US$500 million to buy enough vaccine doses to inoculate 26.5 million people, or 82.8 per cent of its population. It has so far got enough doses to inoculate 40 per cent of its people.

Source: Bernama/kv