KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia registered 5,304 new Covid-19 positive cases as of noon today, taking the overall tally of coronavirus infection to 657,508 since the start of the pandemic last year.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said three states registering the highest number of new infections are Selangor with 1,973 infections followed by Sarawak with 544 and Kuala Lumpur with 462.
There are 335 cases in Sabah, 363 in Johor, 331 in Negri Sembilan, 256 in Penang, 179 in Kelantan, 121 in Perak, 301 in Kedah, 145 in Melaka, 78 in Pahang, 46 in Terengganu, 158 in Labuan, 7 in Putrajaya and 5 in Perlis.
He said there are 5,299 new infections involving 4,146 Malaysians while 1,153 were foreigners and five were import cases.
Dr Noor Hisham said 64 deaths were recorded today, which also includes three foreigners.
"There are 15 deaths in Selangor, 10 in Kuala Lumpur, 7 in Johor, 6 in Kedah, 5 in Negri Sembilan and Pahang respectively, 4 in Sarawak and Labuan respectively, 2 in Sabah and Kelantan respectively and 1 in Penang, Perak, Melaka and Terengganu," he said in a statement today.
The oldest patients to succumb to Covid-19 were two 88-year-olds, a male from Labuan who had a medical history of seizure and dementia while the other is a female patient from Kuala Lumpur suffering from obesity.
The youngest patient was a 21-year-old local man who died at the Tuanku Jaafar Hospital in Seremban, Negri Sembilan. He suffered from high blood pressure and sustained a brain haemorrhage.
He said the Intensive Care Units (ICU) at hospitals nationwide also saw the highest occupancy of beds to date with 917 Covid-19 patients receiving treatment, with 452 of them requiring breathing assistance.
The daily data provided by Dr Noor Hisham showed that the number of patients warded at the ICU had been on a gradual rise throughout this week with 902 from Monday onwards.
Earlier today, the nation's top health official advised Malaysians to stay indoors to curb the Covid-19 spread as ICU beds were running out.
Dr Noor Hisham said there are 8,163 recoveries from the coronavirus infection while there are 73,324 active Covid-19 cases.
He also said that 15 new Covid-19 clusters were identified in Selangor, Johor, Sabah, Kuala Lumpur, Melaka, Kelantan, Sarawak, Sabah and Kedah.
Of the 15 clusters, 11 are workplace infections, four are due to community spread and one due to higher education institution.
The Industri Jalan Usaha Merlimau workplace cluster had the most infections with 31 factory workers who had caught the coronavirus at the Merlimau Industrial Area in Jasin, Melaka. The cluster's index case is a 22-year-old who was confirmed positive today after a close contact screening.
The community spread cluster where 34 people had been infected was identified as being Kampung Tabuan Haji Drahman in Kuching, Sarawak. The cluster's index case, a 25-year-old local man, was reported positive on May 26 after showing coronavirus symptoms nine days earlier. The cluster's name was derived from the locality where the coronavirus had transmitted in Kampung Tabuan Haji Drahman in Jalan Foochow.
The Dah Sintok cluster Kubang Pasu in Kedah was registered after 19 students of a higher education institution had contracted the coronavirus. Two index cases in the cluster were detected positive on June 3 and began showing symptoms on May 25. The duo was found to have travelled back to their hometowns for Hari Raya Aidilfitri.