KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 19): Covid-19 cases in Malaysia remained above the 3,000 mark for three straight days as the country logged 3,631 new infections today, according to Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah. These raised total confirmed infections in the country to 165,371.

There are also 14 more fatalities — 10 men and four women aged between 46 and 85 years — due to the coronavirus, which pushed the death toll from the coronavirus here to 619, Dr Noor Hisham told a press briefing today. Seven of the fatalities were reported in Selangor, two in Johor, and one each from Perak, Kedah, Kelantan, Sarawak and Labuan.

Active cases that carry transmission risks climbed to a fresh high of 39,464. This was the eighth consecutive day that active cases stayed above the 30,000 mark, as the number of new infections again outpaced recoveries — which came in at 2,944, with total recoveries now at 125,288 or 75.6% of overall infections.

Among the new cases, seven were imported infections while 3,624 were locally transmitted. "Of the locally transmitted cases, 2,754 were Malaysians while the remaining 870 cases were foreigners," noted Dr Noor Hisham.

Among the states and federal territories, Selangor continued to top the list with the most number of new infections at 1,199, followed by Sabah with 526 and Kuala Lumpur with 521, Johor (368), Sarawak (156), Negeri Sembilan (139), Perak (135), Kelantan (133), Penang (124), Melaka (122), Kedah (114), Terengganu (33), Pahang (31), Putrajaya (26), Perlis (3) and Labuan (1).
 
Selangor, the most populous state, also has the highest Covid-19 tally, at 49,245.

Dr Noor Hisham said 310 of the new cases came from clusters linked to prisons, lock-ups and immigration depot centres, namely the Jalan Sungai Jelok cluster (217 cases), the Jalan Harapan prison cluster (47), and the Damai Pelangi cluster in Selangor (19); the Tembok Nanas cluster in Johor (22); the Tembok Mempaga cluster in Pahang (3); the Matambai cluster in Sabah (1); and the Telok Mas cluster in Melaka (1).

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