Fifteen new cases of COVID-19 were reported in Malaysia today, comprising four imported and 11 local transmission cases, said Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said one fatality was also reported, bringing the death toll to 123. Prior to today, the last death was reported on July 11.

Dr Noor Hisham said the latest infections brought the cumulative figure to 8,779, of which 103 are active cases.

“The four cases which were infected overseas comprise two Malaysians and two non-citizens -- one who was allowed to enter Malaysia for work purposes and another who is a spouse of a Malaysian. The four imported cases were from the United Kingdom (two), India (one) and Libya (one).

“Of the 11 local transmission cases, eight are Malaysians and three are non-Malaysians,” he said in a statement here.

Dr Noor Hisham said the local transmission cases involving Malaysians comprised five in Sarawak, and one each in Selangor, Sabah and Johor.

“The five cases in Sarawak comprise one case of COVID-19 close contact screening (case 8,743), one case of self-screening, one case of pre-work resumption screening and two cases of random screening at Sarawak's main entry point.

“In Selangor, there was a case of surgery screening at the Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre, while there were one case in Sabah involving procedure screening at Hospital Queen Elizabeth 2 and one case in Johor that was brought-in-dead (BID). This case is also death number 123 reported today,” he added.

The three cases of local transmission involving non-citizens are from new clusters -- one each at the Kuala Lumpur restaurant cluster, Sepang kongsi house cluster in Selangor and Kuching jetty cluster in Sarawak.

On the 123rd death (case 8,770), Dr Noor Hisham said it involved a 72-year-old Malaysian man who was suffering from chronic high blood pressure and stroke.

“He was a resident of an old folks home and started having symptoms of fever and cough on July 10. He was referred to Hospital Enche’ Besar Hajjah Khalsom, Johor on July 17 and died on arrival at the emergency ward.

“He was confirmed COVID-19 positive and died at 12.51 pm on July 17. The Health Ministry would like to convey its condolences to his family members,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham also said seven cases had recovered and were discharged today, bringing the total number of recoveries to 8,553, while only two cases are still being treated at the Intensive Care Unit, with one requiring ventilator support.

-- BERNAMA