The total number of dengue cases in Johor during epidemiological week 40 (ME40), which ran from October 1 to 7, jumped to 7,994 from 2,518 the previous year.
“This represents a 218% increase, with 3,249 (40.6%) being epidemic locality cases and 4,745 (59.4%) being non-epidemic locality cases,” said Ling Tian Soon, chairman of the state health and unification committee.
However, he stated that ME40 saw a decrease in new dengue cases, with 218 compared to 233 in ME39 (September 24 to 30).
According to Ling, the district of Johor Baru had the most incidents (163), followed by Kulai (24) and Batu Pahat (seven).
He stated that Kota Tinggi had six cases, Kluang had five, Segamat had four, Muar and Pontian each had three, and Mersing had one.
Ling also stated that there were 15 total deaths from ME01 to ME40 this year, compared to one death in the same period last year.
“We have issued 4,499 compound notices totalling RM2.18mil so far this year to owners whose premises were found to be breeding places for Aedes mosquitoes and 63.3% paid the fines,” he said.
Ling reported that as of October 7 there were 400,946 total cases of Covid-19 in the state, of which 397,884 were local infections and 3,062 were imported cases.
Five Covid-19 patients are receiving care in hospitals at the moment, and no one has been admitted to the intensive care unit, the man stated.
He also noted that hospital bed utilisation was under 1.0% and that there had not been a sharp rise in Covid-19 cases in Johor during the previous few months.
Ling reported that as of October 7 of current year, the state had 492 cases of Covid-19 Omicron subvariant XXB. Johor Baru had the highest number of instances (272), followed by Muar (61), Kulai (41), Batu Pahat (35), Kluang (25), Kota Tinggi (24), Pontian (16), Tangkak (14), Segamat (3), and Mersing (1).
Despite instances of the subvariant XXB in the state, the Covid-19 situation in Johor is “under control,” he claimed.
In order to safeguard themselves and their families, Ling also urged those who have not yet received the Covid-19 booster dose to sign up right now.
This article was originally published at: thestar.com.my
