Malaysia sees fresh high daily COVID-19 cases, 110 new deaths

KUALA LUMPUR, July 15– Malaysia reported 13,215 new COVID-19 infections, the highest daily spike since the outbreak, bringing the national total to 880,782, the Health Ministry said on Thursday. Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press conference that 13 of the new cases are imported and 13,202 are local transmissions.

KUALA LUMPUR, July 15 (Xinhua) — Malaysia reported 13,215 new COVID-19 infections, the highest daily spike since the outbreak, bringing the national total to 880,782, the Health Ministry said on Thursday.

Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press conference that 13 of the new cases are imported and 13,202 are local transmissions.

Another 110 deaths have been reported, pushing the total deaths to 6,613.

The official added that new variants including the Delta variant are partly responsible for the surge, being more infectious and able to be transmitted more quickly compared to previous strains.

“New variants including Delta can infect close contacts in five seconds compared to at least 15 minutes for previous variants besides being capable of airborne transmission,” he said.

He also said the investigations are continuing on an outbreak of COVID-19 among workers at a vaccination center in Selangor state, with authorities working to trace the source of the infections.

Some 204 health workers at the center located in Selangor state capital Shah Alam had tested positive following a mass screening, however, most had been vaccinated and found to be asymptomatic or with mild symptoms, according to Science, Technology and Innovation Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

Some 6,095 more patients have been released after recovery, bringing the total cured and discharged to 765,800 or 86.9 percent of all cases.

Of the remaining 108,369 active cases, 885 are being held in intensive care and 432 of those are in need of assisted breathing. Enditem