KUALA LUMPUR (May 27): Malaysia registered a new daily high Covid-19 infections of 7,857 today — the third day in a row that infections have spiked — pushing the number of active cases to 69,408, according to Health Ministry director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

New Covid-19 cases first breached the 7,000 mark on Tuesday with 7,289 cases recorded, then climbed to 7,478 yesterday before reaching the new peak today.

As infections continued to climb, the number of patients who need intensive care surged to a new high of 771, of whom 392 require respiratory assistance, Dr Noor Hisham said in a statement.

Meanwhile, 59 more fatalities linked to the coronavirus were registered in the past 24 hours — raising the death toll to 2,491. The new deaths come from Selangor (19), Sarawak (nine), Johor (seven), Kuala Lumpur (six), Kelantan (five), Negeri Sembilan (four), Penang (three), Kedah (two), and Sabah, Melaka, Perak and Terengganu (one each).

There were also 4,598 people who have recovered from the disease today, raising cumulative recoveries to 469,325 or 86.7% of overall infections, which now stand at 541,224.

Of the new infections today, 7,849 were locally-transmitted cases while eight were imported. Selangor topped the list again with the most new infections at 2,675, followed by Sarawak (772), Kuala Lumpur (561) and Johor (549).

The Ministry also reported 20 new Covid-19 clusters today, raising the number of active clusters in the country to 604.

The 20 clusters comprised eight community clusters, seven linked to workplaces, three are religious clusters, while one each linked to detention and education clusters.

The clusters were found in Johor, Kelantan, Sabah, Selangor, Sarawak, Johor, Kuala Lumpur, Pahang, Perak and Melaka. To date, 2,102 clusters have been reported in the country while 1,498 have been declared ended.

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