MALAYSIA reported 17,577 new Covid-19 cases as of noon today, taking the total caseload in the country to 2,067,327, director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said. 

Among the states reporting new cases, Perak saw a spike in infections, logging a record 1,596 cases in the past 24 hours. 

The state’s previous high of 1,450 was reported on September 4. 

The top three states contributing the most number of daily cases remained unchanged for the second consecutive day.

Sarawak topped the case chart with 3,480 new infections, followed by Selangor (2,646) and Johor (2,334). 

The Klang Valley, which comprises Selangor and Kuala Lumpur (366) and Putrajaya (31), accounted for 3,043 cases or 17% of today’s total. 

Other states reporting fresh cases were Sabah (1,533), Penang (1,462), Kedah (1,173), Kelantan (869), Pahang (832), Terengganu (719), Malacca (287), Negri Sembilan (198) and Perlis (41). Labuan reported 10 cases. 

On overall cases by state, Selangor topped the table with 654,286 cases, a vast difference to second-placed Sabah, which has 182,826 cases. Kuala Lumpur was third with 182,099 cases.

Meanwhile, the Health Ministry reported that nearly 17.8 million people or 76.8% of the adult population in the country are now fully inoculated against Covid-19.

It said 202,298 vaccine doses were administered yesterday – 62,108 of them first shots and 140,190 second shots.

This brings the total vaccine doses administered under the national Covid-19 immunisation programme to 39,685,414. – September 17, 2021.