KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia recorded 24,599 Covid-19 cases as of noon today, the highest daily figure since the pandemic hit the country last year.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the nation's cumulative coronavirus cases now stood at 1,640,843. There are 265,841 active cases.
Fatalities also hit a new high with 393 deaths, taking the death toll to 15,211.
Selangor reported 6,936 infections followed by Sabah with 3,487 and Johor with 2,785.
Other states with four-digit cases were Penang (2,078), Sarawak (2,024), Kedah (1,538), Kelantan (1,312) and Perak (1,170).
Kuala Lumpur reported 881 cases, Pahang (690), Terengganu (567), Negri Sembilan (526), and Melaka (515).
Perlis, Putrajaya and Labuan logged 67, 20 and three cases respectively.
"Even though the country logged a record-high of cases since the pandemic started, most of the cases or 97.3 per cent (23,939 cases) are in Categories 1 and 2. The remaining 2.7 per cent (660 cases) are in Categories 3,4 and 5.
"This is in line with the intensified vaccination programme nationwide. As of Aug 25, 40.8 per cent of the population or 56.9 per cent of the adult population have been vaccinated.
"Overall, 19,761 (80.3 per cent) of today's cases have either not been inoculated or yet to complete their vaccination," he said in a statement today.
Dr Noor Hisham also advised Malaysians to immediately register for vaccination and to turn up for their appointments as scheduled.
"Continue to comply with the standard operating procedures (SOP) even when you have been fully vaccinated."
Meanwhile, he said the country also recorded the highest number of recoveries in the past one month with 22,657.
"Currently, 990 cases are being treated at intensive care units (ICU), with 487 requiring ventilator support."
He said the Health Ministry identified 35 new clusters today; 20 are workplace clusters, nine community clusters, four high-risk group clusters, one education cluster and one detention centre cluster.
Dr Noor Hisham said Sarawak and Perlis recorded the highest infectivity rate (Rt) at 1.22 today followed by Sabah (1.21) and Penang (1.12).
"The nationwide Rt is at 1.02, all states are higher than 1.0 except Melaka (0.99), Selangor (0.95), Kuala Lumpur (0.87), Negri Sembilan (0.82), Putrajaya (0.80), and Labuan (0)."