Grim records for Malaysia

Malaysia hit a grim double record yesterday, breaking new highs for both infections and deaths. It logged 9,020 new infections and 98 deaths in the 24 hours leading up to yesterday, eclipsing the previous records of 8,290 infections and 63 deaths.

The country will go into a hard lockdown for two weeks from Tuesday, with most economic and social activities halted, as health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah warned that new cases could jump to 13,000 a day by the middle of next month - just two weeks from now - unless a more serious effort is undertaken to battle Covid-19.