Selangor, Johor and Penang ICUs surpass 90% capacity as Malaysia reports 20,396 new COVID-19 cases

SINGAPORE: Malaysia reported 20,396 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday (Sep 5) as intensive care units (ICU) in several states neared capacity.

Only eight of the new cases were imported infections. 

The state of Selangor contributed most to the daily tally with 3,886 cases, followed by Sarawak and Sabah with 3,747 and 2,136 infections respectively.

States that recorded more than 1,000 cases were Penang with 1,961, Kedah with 1,587, Kelantan with 1,078 and Perak with 1,057.

The number of new daily COVID-19 cases in Malaysia has stayed in the five-figure range since Jul 13.

Health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah said that as of Sep 4, the overall national occupancy rate for ICUs was at 86 per cent.

Three states hit overflowing ICU capacity: Kedah at 123 per cent, Perak at 108 per cent and Kelantan at 103 per cent. 

Selangor and Johor are at 96 per cent capacity while Penang has reached 94 per cent capacity, Dr Noor Hisham said in a Tweet on Sunday. 

He also said that Malaysia is "not out of the woods yet".

In addition to getting vaccinated, Dr Noor Hisham urged members of the public to strictly comply with COVID-19 measures. 

A total of 336 new fatalities were also reported on Sunday, taking national death toll to 18,219. Of these, 107 were classified as brought-in-dead. 

Malaysia announced on Sunday that those who completed their COVID-19 vaccination abroad will be able to get their immunisation certificates verified by local health authorities when entering Malaysia.

Only then will their fully vaccinated status be reflected in Malaysia's contact tracing MySejahtera mobile application, said Minister of Science, Technology and Innovation Adham Baba.

During an interview with journalists, Dr Adham also announced that the government’s COVID-19 immunisation task force has requested for seven more mobile vaccination centres to be added to the existing 13 in Johor.

He also outlined that Johor was the state which received the second largest supply of vaccines in August, and will also receive the second largest supply in September.

As of Sunday, Malaysia has reported a total of 1,844,835 COVID-19 cases, of which 255,789 are currently active or infections.