M'sia's Covid-19 cases surpasses 100,000 on Christmas eve

Two deaths were also reported on Dec. 24.

Syahindah Ishak | December 25, 2020, 11:46 AM

Malaysia reported 1,581 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday (Dec. 24), bringing the total number of cases in the country to 100,318.

According to a press release by Malaysia's director-general of health Noor Hisham Abdullah, only two of the cases were imported.

The rest were local transmissions.

Two deaths

Two more deaths, both in Sabah, were also recorded on Dec. 24.

One of the cases is a 15-year-old Malaysian girl with no underlying conditions.

Her remains were brought to Lahad Datu Hospital.

The other is a 61-year-old Malaysian man with a history of high blood pressure, dyslipidemia, and stroke.

His remains were brought to the Duchess of Kent Hospital in Sandakan.

Malaysia's total number of Covid-19 deaths is now 446.

Discharged cases and clusters

1,085 Covid-19 patients were discharged on Dec. 24, bringing the number of people who have recovered from the virus to 81,099.

102 patients are in the intensive care unit (ICU), with 45 requiring ventilator support.

Selangor recorded the highest increase of the day with 491.

375 out of the 491 cases in Selangor were from the current clusters and close contact screening.

This is followed by Kuala Lumpur with 379 cases, and Sabah with 249 cases.

There were 270 new cases reported from prison and detention centre clusters.

This includes the Jalan Harapan prison cluster which reported 185 new cases and the Tembok Gajah cluster with 74 new cases.

There are still 206 active clusters in Malaysia.

Bought 12.8 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine

On Dec. 21, Hisham announced that Malaysia has bought 12.8 million doses of the Covid-19 vaccine.

However, the country is unsure if the drug can be used on its population.

It will spend the next four months looking into the vaccine's efficacy.

The 12.8 million doses of the vaccine is expected to cover 6.4 million people, or about 20 per cent of Malaysia's population.

Top image from Noor Hisham Abdullah/FB.