TheCable

The Malaysian government says almost half of those who contracted coronavirus in the country have recovered.

Data released by the ministry of health on Tuesday showed that 49.7 percent of the country’s 4,987 confirmed cases had recovered after contracting Covid-19.

Noor Abdullah, the health ministry’s director-general, said while 170 new cases of the disease were diagnosed over the previous 24 hours, 202 people were discharged.

“Perhaps we managed to flatten the rise in the numbers of case. Since last week, daily recoveries or hospital discharges of people previously diagnosed with Covid-19 have mostly exceeded new cases,” Abdullah said.

In Malaysia, 2,478 people have recovered from the disease, with 82 deaths.

Malaysia went into lockdown on March 18, after a spike in cases during the previous week from 149 to 790.

Earlier, the government announced that the lockdown, officially known as movement control order (MCO), would be extended until April 28.

“More needs to be done; perhaps the third MCO will help,” Abdullah said.