M'sia Covid-19 cases surpass 3,000, death toll hits 50

208 new cases.

Sulaiman Daud | Syahindah Ishak | April 02, 2020, 06:23 PM

The Covid-19 outbreak continues to take its toll in Malaysia.

As of 12pm on Apr. 1, the total number of confirmed cases stands at 3,116, according to Malaysiakini.

Five more people have died, bringing the death toll to 50.

The previous death toll a day before stood at 45.

Over 200 new cases of infection

In a press conference on Apr. 2, Health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah announced the new figures.

A total of 208 new cases of infection were recorded since the last update on Apr. 1.

While there are currently 105 patients in Intensive Care Units, an increase of three patients, there was some good news for Malaysia.

Only 54 of those 105 are on ventilators, a drop of 12 from Apr. 1.

In addition, 122 people have recovered and were discharged, which was the highest number of recoveries for a single day.

The total number of recoveries stands at 767.

Distributing PPE to hospitals

While speaking to reporters, Noor Hisham said that Malaysia does not have "one big cluster", but several smaller clusters of Covid-19 cases.

He added that it has seen some imported cases from Malaysians who were abroad and have since returned home.

Noor Hisham also said that while Malaysia initially faced a shortage of personal protective equipment (PPE), it has since solved that problem.

The new task is now to distribute the supplies to the hospitals that need them.

Noor Hisham added:

"It’s an issue of distribution now, so we are trying to address this as soon as possible... Some (hospitals) lack masks, some lack, for example, facial shields. We have already identified all the requirements.

We hope that within this week, we’ll settle. We have a donation of more than 50,000 masks and 50,000 PPEs, as well as half a million masks from China. So there’s a lot of donations coming in."

He also urged Malaysians to follow the government's instructions on social distancing to "flatten the curve" and ensure that the hospitals have the capacity to treat patients.

Malaysia has announced a lockdown, which was extended to Apr. 14.

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Top image from @theiliaqilah Twitter.