Travellers are seen with their luggage at the Kuala Lumpur International Airport October 17, 2021. – Picture by Hari Anggara
KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 22 — The Ministry of Health (MoH) logged 6,630 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours.
The latest numbers indicate a steady rise in daily cases, as seen by the 6,210 new infections reported yesterday and 5,516 new infections on Wednesday.
This brings the total number of Covid-19 cases in the country, since the start of the pandemic, to 2,420,222.
Today’s uptick in figures came amid Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin’s warning about the resurgent number of severe cases across several states, even as the national rate was showing a downward trend.
The minister said the rise coincided with the lifting of the interstate travel ban.
Selangor, Putrajaya, Sarawak and Negri Sembilan have all reported increases after seeing cases dip temporarily.
Key indicators such as deaths, hospitalisation, and ICU utilisation all show a declining trend as more Malaysians have been vaccinated, but the rise in category 3, 4 and 5 cases could threaten to upend the success public health authorities have had so far.
This morning, MoH reported a slight increase in Covid-19 related deaths despite a high vaccination rate, as Malaysia notched 96 more fatalities to raise the total tally to 28,234.
The number of brought-in-dead (BID) also increased slightly to 21 from 14 yesterday. The majority of BID cases are linked to those with a history of chronic illnesses.
The cumulative tally of BID cases is now 5,701, deemed to be considerably high.
Public health authorities have every reason to be alarmed. In the last two weeks alone, 791 fatalities linked to the coronavirus had been reported even thought the overall 14-day trend had declined by 24 per cent.
About two-thirds of the Malaysian populationhave been fully vaccinated, while those who have received at least one dose is slightly higher, around 77.4 per cent.
That leaves a fifth of the population still unvaccinated.