KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 2): Malaysia reported 21 deaths related to Covid-19 today, the highest number of daily fatalities to date. New infections recorded in the 24-hour period totalled 3,455.

The previous highest number of daily deaths was 18, recorded barely two weeks ago on Jan 22.

The new additions raised the country’s coronavirus death toll to 791 and cumulative infections to 222,628, said Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a statement today.

The youngest of the new fatalities was aged 36 and the oldest was 83 years old. All but one of them were Malaysians.

Twelve of the fatalities were reported in Selangor, four in Sabah, two each in Johor and Kuala Lumpur, and one in Kedah. All but one case had comorbidities, which means they had one or more other health conditions. 

The highest number of infections today was reported in Selangor (1,145 cases), followed by Johor (708), Kuala Lumpur (619), and Sabah (276). 

A total of 77 cases, or 2.2% of the new cases today, were from clusters linked to prisons, lock-ups and immigration depots, namely the Tembok Taiping cluster (21 cases), Tembok Renggam cluster (17), Tembok Sungai Udang cluster (15), Tembok Bukit Besi cluster (10), Jalan Harapan prison cluster (9), Seberang Perai prison cluster (3), and Tembok Mempaga cluster (2). 

Active cases now stand at 47,847, after 3,661 patients had recovered and were discharged today. Cumulative recoveries stand at 173,990, giving a recovery rate of 78.15%. 

Dr Noor Hisham said seven new Covid-19 clusters have been detected, of which six were linked to workplaces and one was a community cluster.

This means there are now 404 active clusters in the country, out of the total 838 identified — of which 434 have been declared ended.

The clusters that reported the highest number of new cases today were the Jalan Cheras construction site cluster (332 cases), the Jalan Ragum cluster (210), and the Jalan Seroja cluster (204).