NEW Covid-19 cases remained above the 6,000 mark for the sixth consecutive day today, as 6,509 infections were reported in the past 24 hours.

Today’s figure is also the third highest since the onset of the pandemic.

There were 6,976 cases yesterday, the highest number of daily infections so far. The second-highest tally was 6,806 on May 20.

Active cases climbed to 60,018 from 57,022 yesterday, while 61 deaths were reported, the highest death toll recorded for the country to date.

Only 20 of today’s cases were imported while the rest stemmed from local transmission.

On recoveries, Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said 3,452 people had recuperated from the coronavirus.

This raised the total number of recoveries to 456,273.

Noor Hisham added that today’s fresh cases raises the national caseload to 518,600.

Selangor led the daily tally with 2,049 cases, followed by Sarawak with 530 cases.

Johor and Kuala Lumpur tied in third with 468 cases each.

As for other states, there were 184 cases in Sabah, 384 in Penang, 329 in Negeri Sembilan, 451 in Kelantan, 231 in Perak, 348 in Kedah, 329 in Malacca, 257 in Pahang, 263 in Terengganu, 171 in Labuan and 40 in Putrajaya.

Perlis saw the least number of cases with just seven infections. – May 24, 2021.