Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said there were 573 recoveries, bringing the total number of those discharged to 19,072.

Meanwhile, the eight deaths bring the toll to 246.

Seven of the deaths recorded today were in Sabah while Selangor recorded one. The deceased were aged between 35 to 73, and all except one had a history of chronic health conditions.

A total of 10,123 people are still being treated, with 94 receiving intensive care, of which 25 require respiratory assistance.

Of the 801 new cases, 799 are local infections while two are imported.

Noor Hisham said Sabah had 546 new cases today, or 68% of today’s total.

Selangor recorded 88 cases. Other states which recorded cases were Labuan (29), Kedah (28), Sarawak (27), Negeri Sembilan (24), Penang (19), KL (13), Terengganu (11), Johor (8) and Perak (6).

There were no new cases reported in Putrajaya, Perlis, Kelantan, Pahang and Melaka.

Most of these cases came from existing clusters and screening of close contacts of positive cases.

Noor Hisham said that of the 238 deaths, 136 were during the second wave and 102 from the third wave. There were no deaths recorded in the first wave.

He also explained that deterioration in patients’ condition could sometimes be “very fast”, thus leading to several patients who were unable to receive proper treatment at hospitals in Sabah.

Noting the high percentage of Covid-19 cases in Sabah classified as “brought in dead”, or BID, Noor Hisham said that the health ministry’s forensic experts have gone to Sabah to look into the matter.

“The total number of BID is 44 cases. Nine in the second wave and 35 in the third wave,” he said.

“We’ve sent our forensic experts to Sabah to look into our services (and see) how we can isolate or follow SOPs for BID.”

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