MALAYSIA recorded 1,937 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, the third-highest number of daily cases since the onset of the pandemic.

The highest was 2,234 cases on December 10, followed by 2,188 on November 24.

Director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, who announced the figures, said the country’s total caseload is now 82,246.

Selangor recorded the bulk of today’s new infections, at 823 or 42.5% of the total, topping other states for the fifth consecutive day.

Sabah was next with 429 cases, followed by Kuala Lumpur with 238 cases. 

“In Selangor, 714 or 82.6% of the cases are related to clusters and were detected through contract tracing,” Noor Hisham said.

The pattern of Selangor, Sabah and Kuala Lumpur being the top three states to record daily high cases have now continued for five straight days.

There were also nine fatalities today, taking the nation’s death toll to 411. 

Eight of the dead were men, while four were reported in Sabah, three in Johor, and one each in Penang and Selangor.

Eight of the nine victims had underlying medical conditions.

The victim who did not was the youngest, at age 33, and died in Selangor.  

On recoveries, 911 patients were discharged from the hospital, taking the number of recoveries in the country to 68,084. 

There are now 13,751 active cases in the nation. 

Of the number of active cases, 121 are admitted in intensive care, while 66 of them require breathing assistance. – December 12, 2020.