PETALING JAYA: Malaysia recorded 27,004 new Covid-19 cases on Thursday (March 17), bringing the total number of infections to 3,927,437 since the pandemic began, says the Health Ministry.

       The Ministry’s CovidNow portal reported that 26,285 cases were local transmissions while 719 were imported cases.

       It also said that 29,450 Covid-19 patients recovered on Thursday, bringing the total number of recoveries in Malaysia to 3,596,453 cases since the pandemic began.

       There are currently 296,799 active cases in the country, with 286,599 (96.6%) observing home quarantine and 1,971 (0.7%) admitted to low-risk quarantine and treatment facilities.

       A total of 7,856 Covid-19 patients are currently hospitalised, with 373 warded in intensive care units (ICU) of which 225 require ventilator support.

       Meanwhile, there were 86 Covid-19 deaths reported on Thursday, with 35 classified as brought-in-dead (BID).