Malaysia's new Covid-19 death toll has surpassed 2,000 for the first time

Workers and family members wearing protective suits bury a victim of the Covid-19 disease at a cemetery

KUALA LUMPUR, May 18 — The Health Ministry announced another 47 deaths from Covid-19 today, the highest single-day loss in the country since the start of the pandemic.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah disclosed on Twitter that 4,865 new Covid-19 cases have also been detected in the country by the Health Ministry in the last 24 hours.

According to Dr. Noor Hisham, the number of patients in Selangor has increased to 1,743 from 1,650 the day before.

Sarawak (512), Kuala Lumpur (477), Johor (407) and Kelantan (407) were among the states where new Covid-19 cases were recorded (406).

Kedah (244), Penang (220), Perak (160), Terengganu (156), Pahang (152), Negri Sembilan (149), Melaka (127), Sabah (95), Putrajaya (nine), Labuan (six), and Perlis are the remaining states with new Covid-19 instances (two).

Since the commencement of the epidemic, Malaysia has lost a total of 1,994 patients to Covid-19.

There were 18 deaths in Selangor alone today, five in Sarawak and Penang, four in Johor, Kuala Lumpur, and Kelantan, three in Perak, two in Pahang, and one each in Kedah and Negri Sembilan.

All but one of the fatalities were Malaysians, according to Dr. Noor Hisham, and just two of them did not have any pre-existing medical conditions.

“At the moment, we have 531 Covid-19 patients in critical care units (ICUs), with 277 of them requiring ventilators to help them breathe,” he stated.

Today, full recoveries fell behind new cases again, with 3,497 patients released, bringing the total number of current cases to 44,827.

Dr Noor Hisham added that 19 new Covid-19 clusters were detected in the country, bringing the total number of active clusters in the country to 497.