KLANG (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - A private home for the elderly in Klang, Selangor lost 17 of its 24 residents to Covid-19 within a span of two weeks recently.

Selangor, Malaysia's most industrialised state, is a hot spot for Covid-19 infections.

Pusat Jagaan Warga Emas Kasih Sayang 2 at Jalan Pekan Baru here lost its first resident three weeks ago and its latest Covid-19 death occurred a week ago.

The home's owner, Mr Tan Kai Sheng, said all 24 residents - aged between 70 and 90 - as well as the centre's six live-in workers, tested positive for Covid-19.

To make matters worse, three workers at the home ran away and one left.

"One came back and we hired new staff to take care of the old folks,'' said Mr Tan, who also has another private home for the elderly in Klang.

When contacted recently, Bandar Baru Klang assemblyman Teng Chang Khim said the district health department had come in to do the necessary after his office alerted them to the situation.

The home is located in Datuk Teng's state constituency.

He added that Buddhist organisation Fo Guang Shan sent six oxygen generators to the home after learning of the cases.

It is learnt that none of the home's 24 residents had been vaccinated or registered on Malaysia's Covid-19 MySejahtera app to receive vaccination appointments.

Over 30 million vaccine doses have been administered nationwide as at Saturday (Aug 21), with 55.5 per cent of the total population having received one dose and nearly 39 per cent receiving two doses.

Malaysia's daily coronavirus cases have stayed above the 20,000 level for the last week, while deaths have remained above 200 a day over the same period. Over 1.5 million infections and 13,000 deaths have been reported since the pandemic began.