KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia recorded a spike in Covid-19 cases today, with 3,297 new infections registered in the past 24 hours.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said Perak broke the record previously held by Selangor by logging in the highest number of infections.
The state, he said, registered 1,215 new cases, followed by Selangor and Johor with 868 cases and 431 cases respectively.
"Of the 3,297 new cases, 3,291 are local transmissions (1,402 Malaysians and 1,889 foreigners) and the remaining six cases are imported (five Malaysians and a foreigner).
"This brings the total number of Covid-19 cases to date to 283,569, including 33,304 active cases," he posted on Facebook today.
The last time Malaysia registered more than 3,000 Covid-19 daily cases was on Feb 13 (3,499 cases) after which the figures dropped to over 2,000 cases.
Dr Noor Hisham said the number of recoveries continues to outnumber daily new infections with 4,456 patients discharged in the past 24 hours.
This raised the total number of recoveries from Covid-19 to 249,209 (or 87.88 per cent), he said.
Dr Noor Hisham said there were also five new fatalities today, bringing the national death toll to 1,056 (0.37 per cent).
He added that 209 patients are being treated at Intensive Care Units, with 91 requiring respiratory aid.