PUTRAJAYA: Labuan’s success in reducing its Covid-19 figures is an achievement that other states can emulate, says Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

       The Federal Territory, which has the country’s best vaccination rate, reported zero Covid-19 cases once again.

       “Once more, Labuan reported no new Covid-19 cases. Here’s hoping other states and territories can follow the footsteps of Labuan through full compliance with Covid-19 SOPs (standard operating procedures).

       “This is down to all of us. Care for ourselves and care for our community,” Dr Noor Hisham posted on Twitter when announcing the daily Covid-19 figures.

       As at Aug 16, Labuan has fully vaccinated 89.3% of its adult population, with 99.3% having already received at least one dose.

       Yesterday, Malaysia’s Covid-19 case figures continued its recent downward trend, with the country reporting 19,631 more coronavirus infections.

       Since the record high of 21,668 infections on Aug 12, the number of daily cases has dipped slightly for five days in a row.

       In his daily Covid-19 statement, Dr Noor Hisham said 98.4% (19,326 cases) of yesterday’s total were mild or asymptomatic.

       The remaining 1.6% (305 cases) are those in Categories 3, 4 and 5.

       Dr Noor Hisham said 84.75% of yesterday’s cases were either unvaccinated individuals or those have not completed their full dosage.

       Of the country’s new cases, half of them were detected from contact tracing activities.

       Another 39% were sporadic infections, while 9% were linked to clusters.

       There were also seven imported cases.

       Selangor continued to report the highest number of cases with 5,753 new infections. Sabah came in second with 2,103 new cases, followed by Kedah with 1,863 cases.

       Kuala Lumpur had 1,765 new cases.

       Dr Noor Hisham said the national infectivity rate as at Aug 16 was at an Rt level of 1.05.

       There were 293 Covid-19 deaths, bringing Malaysia’s death toll up to 13,077.

       It includes 251 Malaysians and 42 foreign nationals.

       There were 44 brought-in-dead (BID) cases, of which 28 were Malaysians.

       Nineteen of the BID cases were reported in Kuala Lumpur. Of the total death cases, 249 people had some form of comorbidity.

       The country’s active cases continued to climb, currently numbering 252,147.

       There were 1,054 patients in intensive care units and 525 on ventilator support.

       Malaysia also discharged 16,468 more patients from treatment.