KUALA LUMPUR (Oct 6): Malaysia posted a new record high of 691 Covid-19 cases today, surging past the previous peak of 432 cases recorded yesterday, according to the Health Ministry, with four new deaths.
Kedah topped the list of states with the highest number of new infections at 397, with 394 found within the Tembok cluster that was discovered in the Alor Setar prison.
This means the cluster now has over 1,000 active cases at 1,047, making it the biggest and most active cluster in Malaysia now, according to MoH director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
The D-G, however, assured that all confirmed infections within this cluster are within the targeted enhanced movement control order or EMCO area, which means they are isolated from the rest of the community.
Sabah, meanwhile, was the second worst-hit state, with 219 new cases, of which 120 were detected through symptomatic screening involving 117 Malaysians and three foreigners.
It was followed by Selangor (38 cases), Perak (eight), Negeri Sembilan (seven), Johor (six), Kuala Lumpur (four), Sarawak (three), Penang (three), Terengganu (one), Putrajaya (one) and Labuan (one). Only four states reported no new cases today, namely Pahang, Melaka, Kelantan, and Perlis.
With the four new fatalities — two men aged 60 and a one-year-old infant in Sabah, and an 85-year-old man in Penang — the country's death toll from Covid-19 now stands at 141.
The infant is the youngest death recorded in the country, Noor Hisham told a news briefing today.
Out of the new daily cases today, 668 were domestic transmissions, while three were imported; 661 were locals, while 27 were foreigners.
Of the imported cases, one involved a Malaysian who returned home from India recently, while the two others were foreigners who had travelled from Egypt and the Philippines.
As the number of recoveries only came in at 87 today, much lower than the new infections detected, the actives tally jumped to 2,936. Total recoveries, meanwhile, stands at 10,427, or 77.2% of the 13,504 total infections in the country.