Malaysia’s pandemic fatalities top 3,000

Malaysia’s Health Ministry reported 103 Coronavirus-related deaths on Thursday, the second consecutive day of triple-digit fatalities and taking the pandemic total to 3,096.

Most of those who died had prior health conditions like diabetes, high blood pressure and stroke, said Noor Hisham Abdullah, the ministry’s director-general.

Two more people were admitted to intensive care units overnight, Noor Hisham said, taking the total to 880, of which almost 450 are on ventilators.

The ministry has reported at least 50 virus-related deaths a day since May 17, with Wednesday’s 126 fatalities breaking Saturday’s record of 98.

Over 8,000 new cases of the virus were reported on Thursday, taking the national total to just fewer than 600,000, of which almost 510,000 are listed by the ministry as recovered.

Daily case numbers have since mid-May exceeded the record set in February of just over 4,500.

Over 9,000 cases were reported on Saturday, the most in a day.

Malaysia, which has a population of almost 33 million, has for several weeks been reporting the heaviest daily caseload, measured per capita, of the 10 member-states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).

The government this week imposed two weeks of total lockdown, tightening a third lockdown in place since May.

A second lockdown was lifted in February after the government said the country’s economy would be hard-hit.

Malaysia’s first lockdown, which ran from March-May 2020, contributed to gross domestic product falling by around 17 per cent quarter on quarter.