KUALA LUMPUR, June 5 (Xinhua) -- Malaysia reported 19 new COVID-19 cases, pushing the national total to 8,266, the Health Ministry said on Friday.
Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said at a press briefing that of the new cases, seven are imported while among the 12 local transmissions, nine are Malaysian and three are foreign nationals.
One more death was reported, the first since May 22, with the victim having suffered from health conditions before becoming infected, pushing the total deaths to 16.
The daily increase also marked a significant drop compared to a day earlier, when a record high of 277 case were reported, mostly foreign detainees in an immigration detention center.
Another 51 patients have been released bringing the total cured and discharged to 6,610 or 80 percent of all cases.
Of the remaining 1,540 active cases, six are currently being held in intensive care and one of those is in need of assisted breathing.
Meanwhile Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced a 35-billion-ringgit (8.2 billion U.S. dollars) economic stimulus package to aid recovery from the pandemic.
In a televised speech, Muhyiddin outlined 40 initiatives, focusing on supporting workers and small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) through training programmers, social support, financing schemes, boosting domestic consumption and other supporting industries.
Muhyiddin added that 9 billion ringgit (2.1 billion U.S. dollars) would be spent on mitigating the problem of unemployment caused by economic disruptions resulting from the outbreak, as well as expanding the wage subsidy program. Enditem
