AFTER seven straight days of reporting cases in the range of 2,000, Malaysia today logged 3,297 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, said Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah. 

The last time Malaysia reported 3,000 or more cases was on February 13. 

The director-general of health also said that Perak upstaged Selangor in reporting a high number of cases by state today. 

He said Perak reported 1,215 cases today, followed by Selangor with 868 and Johor with 431. 

Noor Hisham said Jalan Changkat Jong – a workplace cluster involving Hilir Perak and Perak Tengah – was the main reason for the spike in cases in Perak today, reporting 1,046 out of 1,215 cases in the state.

Prior to today, Selangor was reporting high cases by state for 24 straight days. 

Noor Hisham said of the new cases today, six were imported, while the rest were local transmissions. 

“Of the 3,291 local transmissions, 1,402 involved Malaysians and 1,889 were foreigners. 

“As for the imported cases, five of six involved Malaysians,” he said in a statement today. 

The number of cases today brings the country’s caseload to 283,569. 

Besides this, the country also had 4,456 patients discharged from the hospital as of 12pm today, taking the recovery total to 249,209. 

This brings the number of active cases in the country to 33,304, with 209 admitted in the intensive care unit and 91 of them requiring respiratory support. 

Besides this, Noor Hisham said that five deaths were reported today, taking the fatalities toll in the country to 1,056.

Two deaths each were reported in Selangor and Terengganu while one was reported in Kuala Lumpur.

Of the victims, four were Malaysians and one was a foreigner, a 29-year-old woman, brought in dead to Ampang Hospital. 

All victims had underlying medical conditions, with high blood pressure the common disease among the four victims.

The oldest victim to succumb to the coronavirus today was aged 82. – February 21, 2021.