KUALA LUMPUR (July 25): Malaysia recorded 23 new Covid-19 cases in the last 24 hours ending noon today, with two new clusters detected, bringing the country's confirmed infections to 8,884.
This continued the climb it reported yesterday, when new cases jumped to 21 from nine the previous day. Today's 23 cases represent the highest number of daily cases found since June 15, when daily cases stood at 41.
As the new cases found also outpaced the number of recoveries, which stood at 17, the number of active cases now total 167 — the 7th day in a row it stood above the 100-mark. Total recoveries are now at 8,594, representing a recovery rate of 96.7%.
No new deaths were reported, thus the death toll from the virus remained at 123. This translated into a mortality rate of 1.38% of overall cases, according to the Ministry of Health (MoH) in a statement today.
Of the new cases found, 17 were domestic transmissions, while six were imported — with four involving Malaysians and two foreigners. Three of these imported cases came from Singapore, one from Indonesia, one from Philipines and one from Russia.
Of the domestic transmissions, 10 involved Malaysians while seven were foreigners.
Meanwhile, two MoH also reported two new clusters, which it identified as Bukit Tiram and Kuching Construction Company clusters.
In the Bukit Tiram cluster, two infections were found at a religious centre in Taman Bukit Tiram, Johor. The two are non-Malaysians living here and are part of the centre's staff.
"The two positive cases exhibited symptoms on July 15 but did not get immediate treatment at any health facility. Subsequently, they went for Covid-19 screening and were found positive on July 24," the MoH said.
As for the Kuching Construction Company cluster, the first confirmed case was detected on July 11. From subsequent screenings, one of the 55 close contacts of this index case was found positive.
Investigations into the source of infection of both new clusters, alongside active case detection, are still ongoing, the MoH added.