KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 5): Malaysia's new Covid-19 cases surged to 432 today — the highest since infections were first reported in the country in January, the Ministry of Health (MOH) said.
The previous highest figure for daily infections was 317, recorded last Saturday.
This is also the fifth straight day Malaysia has reported triple-digit new infections since the start of this month, with 260 cases on Oct 1.
With today's cases, the total number of Covid-19 cases reported in the country has risen to 12,813, MOH director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement.
Of the 432 new cases, 429 were locally transmitted infections involving 409 Malaysians and 20 foreigners, he said.
The remaining three imported cases involved two Malaysians and one foreigner. They recently returned from India, Kuwait and Myanmar.
Noor Hisham said 224 of the locally transmitted cases were from the Tembok cluster in Kedah, while 29 cases comprised returnees from Sabah.
This brought to 235 the total number of cases involving those who had travelled to Sabah since Sept 20.
Elaborating on the breakdown of new cases today, Noor Hisham said Kedah topped the list with 241 cases, followed by Sabah with 130, Selangor (34), Terengganu (five) and Kuala Lumpur (five).
Labuan registered four cases, followed by Johor (two), Perak (two), Putrajaya (two), Negeri Sembilan (one), Pahang (one), Melaka (one) and Kelantan (one).
To date, the ministry said Kuala Lumpur has the highest number of infections in the country with 2,701 cases, followed by Sabah with 2,519, Selangor (2,412), Negeri Sembilan (1,055) and Kedah (1,050).
Meanwhile, the total number of active cases in the country has breached the 2,000 mark again to reach 2,336.
Of these, 32 patients are in intensive care units, including eight who require respiratory assistance.
The last time active cases stood above 2,000 was April 15 with a total of 2,342.
A total of 57 Covid-19 patients were discharged in the 24 hours as of noon today, bringing total recoveries to date to 10,340 or 80.7% of total cases.
The Covid-19 death toll remained at 137 for the second consecutive day, as no new deaths were reported.
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