MALAYSIA recorded its worst day in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic today, reporting 16 new deaths.

The previous highest number of deaths recorded in a single day was 12 on November 3, 2020.

With the additional 16, the total number of Covid-19 deaths is now 537, said the Ministry of Health in a statement today.

Of the deaths, Selangor recorded the highest number at 9 followed by Sabah (4) and Johor (3).

The youngest death was of a 43-year-old man from Johor who had a history of diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity, while the oldest was a 79-year-old man from Selangor with a history of diabetes, high blood pressure and a heart condition.

According to MOH, three of today’s fatalities took place before they were brought to the hospital. These cases were brought to the Duchess of Kent Hospital in Sandakan (1) and Hospital Queen Elizabeth in Kota Kinabalu (2). All the other deaths took place at various hospitals in Selangor, Sabah and Johor.

Selangor also reported the highest number of infections, at 1,086 (41.1%) of the today’s total number of new infections at 2,643.

Cumulatively, the country’s Covid-19 caseload is now 131,108. After  2,708 new recoveries, the total number of active cases in the country now stands at 25,140.

Among the new cases, 1,666 (63%) were of Malaysians while 975 were non-citizens.

Only two out of the 2,643 new cases were imported.

In Selangor, 904 (83.2%) of the state’s new cases were detected from clusters and close-contact screening.

After Selangor, Sabah had second highest number of new cases at 401 (15.2%) followed by Johor with 298 (11.3%).

Different from previous days, only 79 (3%) new cases today were detected from lock-up, detention and prison clusters. – January 8, 2021.