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Malaysia reports 9,020 new coronavirus cases, record daily count
This is the fifth straight day of record new infections, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 558,534, Reuters reported.
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A policeman checks documents at a roadblock on the East Coast Expressway (Kuala Lumpur–Karak) during a partial lockdown set by authorities restricting travel within each state and district to curb the spread of the Covid-19 coronavirus, ahead of Eid al-Fitr, marking the end of the Islamic holy month of Ramadan, in Bentong on May 11, 2021. (AFP/Mohd. Rasfan)
Malaysia reported 9,020 new coronavirus cases on Saturday, the highest daily toll since the start of the pandemic.
This is the fifth straight day of record new infections, bringing the total number of cases in the country to 558,534, Reuters reported.
Malaysia's average daily COVID-19 cases per capita exceeded India this week and the country's health care system has been on the verge of collapsing, leading the government to announce a total nationwide lockdown on Friday.
"The decision was taken after considering the current COVID-19 situation where daily COVID-19 cases have reached over 8,000 with more than 70,000 active cases. Up until today, 2,552 people had died," Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in a statement, quoted by Kyodo News.
Malaysia's coronavirus outbreak has surpassed India on a key benchmark since Sunday. It reported 211.29 daily new cases per million people on Wednesday on a rolling seven-day average, compared with 165.28 in India, according to Johns Hopkins University data.
Daily COVID-19 cases crossed the 7,000 mark on Tuesday and the 8,000 mark on Friday, the highest since the outbreak.
Not only is the infection rate going up but also the fatality rate. Death cases are consistently by the "busload," as the Health Ministry described it, notching between 40 and over 50 a day.
The occupancy rate of intensive care units nationwide is now over 91 percent, senior Health Ministry official Noor Hisham Abdullah said on May 21.
In hospitals in Selangor and Penang states, ICUs are already full and some have had to repurpose normal wards. In Penang, the military was roped in to construct a "field ICU" in a hospital compound.
As the mortality climbs, two hospitals in Selangor resorted to using shipping containers as makeshift morgues.
"The country's health care is on the verge of collapse and our hope lies with the frontliners. Help us by staying at home," Hisham said in a Facebook post Friday. Under the total lockdown from June 1 to 14, all social and economic sectors will be shut, except for essential sectors and services.
