By NewsDesk  @infectiousdiseasenews

On Wednesday, Malaysian health authorities reported an additional 14 COVID-19 cases bringing the total number of COVID-19 positive cases in Malaysia to 8,529.

Kuala Lumpur and Selangor state account for more than half the countries cases.

No new death were recorded keeping that number at 121 (1.42 percent of the total).

8,000 cases, or 93.8 percent of the total cases, have recovered from the infection.

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Malaysia’s success in dealing with the pandemic was outlined in a recent DNDi situation brief which summarizes:

  1. Malaysia’s preparedness and planning began in December 2019, when they first heard from Chinese authorities that there were cases of acute respiratory illness;
  2. Previous experience with MERS and the 2002-2003 severe acute respiratory syndrome (SARS) epidemic, including experienced contact tracing teams, was key in enabling a speedy response;
  3. Malaysia drastically upgraded health facilities and diagnostics capacity in February 2020, including an 86% increment in diagnostics laboratory capacity, 89% increment in critical care bed capacity, and an 49% increase in the number of available ventilators (from 526 to 1034 units);
  4. Malaysia hospitalised all individuals diagnosed as COVID-19 positive, whether symptomatic and asymptomatic;
  5. Learning from other countries, including China was essential in identifying do’s and don’t’s in the COVID-19 response, including in terms of treatment;
  6. While evidence on treatments was still murky, Malaysian physicians prioritised monitoring for negative side-effects of treatments and adjusted medication regimens