MALAYSIA today reported its lowest number of new Covid-19 cases for the year with 1,280 infections in the past 24 hours, said director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

This means the number of new cases continue to decline below the 2,000 mark in the last four days.

Of today’s figure, only two were imported cases, while the rest were local transmissions.

“Of 1,278 local transmission, 919 involved Malaysians, while 359 are foreigners.

“The two imported cases involve a local and a foreigner,” Noor Hisham said in a statement.

Cumulatively, the country’s caseload is now 316,269.

By state, Selangor reported the most cases with 464, followed by Johor with 165 and Sarawak with 163.

Malacca and Labuan were the two states not to have recorded a single case today.

The number of recoveries once again outnumbered new infections with 2,345 recoveries reported in the last 24 hours.

This would be the 13th straight day that recoveries have topped new infections.

Active cases are now at 18,704.

Of them, 155 are being treated in intensive care, with 76 of them requiring respiratory support.

Nine deaths were reported today, taking the total fatalities count to 1,186.

Four deaths were reported in Selangor, and one each in Kuala Lumpur, Terengganu, Perak, Sabah and Sarawak.

Eight of today’s victims were Malaysians and one a foreigner.

All eight local victims had underlying medical conditions and were aged above 50.

The foreigner, aged 38, who had no past medical history, succumbed to the disease in Kuala Lumpur. – March 9, 2021.