KUALA LUMPUR (July 7): The Ministry of Health (MoH) reported six new Covid-19 cases as of noon today, bringing the total infections in the country to 8,674.

All six new cases are Malaysians, and four were imported cases — meaning the patients were infected abroad — while two were locally transmitted cases, said health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

Both the locally transmitted cases were detected through workplace screening — one in Kuala Lumpur and one in Selangor. “No cases [involving] foreigners were reported for today,” said Noor Hisham in a statement.

There were also five more recoveries recorded. This means the total active cases in the country rose by one to 72, as the new cases outpaced recoveries. Nonetheless, it is the sixth consecutive day that the number of active cases remained under 100.

The recovery rate from overall cases stood at 97.8% or 8,481 cases. The death toll, meanwhile, remained at 121 with no new fatalities reported, representing 1.39% of overall cases.

Meanwhile, the ministry updated that in the three months between April 3 and July 7, a total of 647 positive infections were found among those who returned from abroad.

Since June 10, all returnees have been placed under Home Surveillance Order (HSO) for the 14-day mandatory quarantine. Since then, no Covid-19 infections have been detected among the family members of these returnees.

“This is a good sign of the implementation of the HSO,” said Noor Hisham. However, much still depends on the compliance of the returnees to the HSO, he pointed out.

Hence, he urged all those who return home from abroad to always cooperate with the ministry by complying with the HSO set, to curb the spread of the coronavirus in the country.