ACTIVE Covid-19 cases continued on an uptrend today, rising to 17,575 from yesterday’s 16,696, as the country reported over 2,000 new cases in the past 24 hours.

The uptick in active cases began on April 7, when there were 14,097 cases.

The 2,148 new infections today outnumbered the 1,259 recoveries.

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the fresh cases have brought the total caseload to 367,977.

In his daily press statement on pandemic statistics, he said only 19 of today’s cases were imported while the rest stemmed from local transmission.

The country also saw 10 Covid-19 fatalities, raising the death toll to 1,363.

The fatalities were between the ages of 54 and 97. Eight of them had underlying medical conditions but the remaining two had no such records. 

All died in hospitals except for the 54-year-old who was brought in dead.

By state, Sarawak reported the highest number of new cases, at 512, followed by Selangor and Kelantan with 459 and 221 cases respectively.

Of active cases, 212 are warded in intensive care units at hospitals, 82 of whom require respiratory support. – April 15, 2021.