PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia’s Covid-19 pandemic cases reached new heights once again as the country logged a record 21,668 cases in 24 hours.

       The Health Ministry also reported 318 deaths, of which a staggering 93 were brought-in-dead (BID) cases.

       Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that 97.9% of yesterday’s new cases were mild and asymptomatic ones.

       Some 2.1% or 440 cases fell into Categories 3, 4 and 5.

       Dr Noor Hisham said 87.4% of the new infections comprised unvaccinated people.

       About 53% of the country’s cases yesterday were close contacts of patients.

       Another 37% were unlinked infections, while 8% were related to clusters.

       There were also 58 imported cases.

       Cumulatively, Malaysia has reported 1,342,215 cases since the start of the pandemic.

       Yesterday, seven states reported four-digit figures – Selangor (6,278 cases), Kuala Lumpur (2,436), Kedah (2,143), Sabah (2,052), Johor (1,706), Penang (1,229) and Sarawak (1,216).

       On Covid-19 deaths, Selangor reported the highest number with 118 deaths, followed by Johor with 52, Kuala Lumpur with 45 and Sabah 28.

       Of the BID deaths, 40 were from Selangor and 37 from Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia’s Covid-19 death toll is now 11,691.

       Nationwide, there are now 237,021 active Covid-19 cases.

       Currently, 1,059 patients are battling the virus in intensive care units nationwide. Some 543 require ventilator support.

       The country also discharged 17,687 more Covid-19 patients yesterday.

       To date, 1,093,503 people in Malaysia have recovered from Covid-19 (81.47% of all cases).

       As at Aug 11, the country’s infectivity rate is at an RT of 1.06.

       Dr Noor Hisham said Perlis had the highest infectivity level at an RT of 1.40.

       Only Labuan and Putrajaya had RT levels of below 1.

       In terms of the Covid-19 incidence rate, Malaysia’s seven-day average is 53.2 cases per 100,000 population.

       Meanwhile, the Health Ministry also identified 45 new Covid-19 clusters nationwide.

       These include 30 workplace-related clusters – which have 1,104 confirmed cases so far.

       Another 11 clusters are community-based outbreaks, with 251 positive cases detected.

       Two clusters have been categorised as high-risk groups, while two more are related to education institutions.

       The ministry is currently monitoring 1,281 active clusters nationwide.