THE number of Covid-19 recoveries in the last 24 hours at 202 has exceeded the number of new cases today.

Total recoveries are now at 2,478, and these patients have been discharged from hospital, Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said.

“The rate of recovery is now 49.7%, or almost half of all cases,” he added.

There were 170 new infections recorded as of noon, taking the national toll of infections to 4,987, he told the Health Ministry’s daily press conference on Covid-19.

After recoveries and deaths, there are 2,470 active cases.

Five deaths were reported, however, bringing the total death toll to 82.

One of them included a man who possessed no identification and is believed to be a foreigner.

Dr Noor Hisham said the man was found dead in Kota Kinabalu on April 6 and samples taken during his autopsy confirmed that he had Covid-19.

The matter is also under police investigation, he said.

The four other deaths, of three men and one woman, were senior citizens with a history of chronic illnesses. 

Two of them attended the tabligh gathering at the Sri Petaling mosque.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham also said that 75% of total deaths had involved men.

On why this was so, he said one factor was because the biggest cluster of positive Covid-19 cases was the Sri Petaling tabligh gathering, in which most of the attendees had been men.

“Why there are more cases involving men, which comprise about 75% of those infected, than women is because the Sri Petaling event was attended mostly by men,” he said.

Most of the deaths reported were also from this cluster.

Regardless of gender, 85% of fatalities also had comorbidity or other underlying illnesses.

Besides that, those above the age of 60 are considered a high-risk group, Dr Noor Hisham added. – April 14, 2020.