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MOH: No COVID-19 Deaths Recorded For 22 Consecutive Days In Malaysia

Meanwhile, the country's biggest cluster from the Sri Petaling tabligh gathering has only one active patient left.

Cover image via Shahrin Yahya/TheEdge via EdgeProp & Mohamad Shahril Badri Saali/New Straits Times

Malaysia has recorded no COVID-19 deaths for 22 consecutive days and only five new cases in the last 24 hours

According to the Ministry of Health, this brings the total number of local cases to 8,668 and the number of local deaths remains at 121.

During the COVID-19 press conference yesterday, 6 July, Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah announced that out of the five new cases, three were imported and two were local transmissions.

One of the local cases is a family member and close contact of Patient 8,649 from Selangor, while the other is a foreign worker who tested positive at a community screening in Kuala Lumpur.

Meanwhile, 11 more patients were discharged yesterday, reducing the number of active cases in the country to 71 and bringing the country's COVID-19 recovery rate to almost 98%.

The biggest cluster in the country - the Sri Petaling tabligh cluster - is also nearing its end with only a single active case left after four months since its initial detection

"This is a success. There has been a strong, concerted effort involving the ministry and many other agencies to take action as soon as we detected this cluster," said Dr Noor Hisham.

"We managed to trace many of the participants of the gathering. Those who attended also cooperated well with us," he said of the 42,023 individuals who were traced and tested.

According to The Star, about 40% of Malaysia's COVID-19 cases are linked to the religious gathering with the cases spanning five generations. This led to 34 deaths or 28% of the total fatalities in the country.

Dr Noor Hisham hopes the ministry can end its monitoring of the cluster in one or two weeks.

Despite the good news, the MOH is reminding Malaysians to not take the improving situation lightly to avoid another outbreak

"We have seen in other countries where they managed to control the infection, but the moment they ease and relax restrictions, and people do not comply with standard operating procedures (SOP), COVID-19 made a comeback," Dr Noor Hisham said.

"So it is important to keep complying with the SOP set by the ministry."

New Straits Times reported that the MOH is aiming to reach zero daily positive cases by the middle of July.

Keep practising social distancing and wash your hands often. Watch the latest update on the COVID-19 situation:

Meanwhile, 239 scientists from 32 countries have called on the World Health Organization (WHO) to revise its health and safety recommendations on the novel coronavirus:

As Malaysia nears the end of the COVID-19 battle, authorities are worried about the resurgence of the haze:

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