KUALA LUMPUR: The daily number of COVID-19 infections in Malaysia continues to rise with a total of 13,215 cases reported today, the highest daily figure recorded since the pandemic hit the country.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the sharp increase brings the total number of cases to 880,782 so far.

Selangor remains the state with the highest number of infections with 6,120 new cases, followed by Negeri Sembilan (1,603) and Kuala Lumpur (1,499), he said in a Twitter post.

Kedah reported 695 cases, Johor (599), Penang (509), Sabah (370), Sarawak (363), Melaka (484), Perak (344), Kelantan (255) and Pahang (222).

There were 70 new cases reported in Terengganu, Labuan (26), Putrajaya (53) and Perlis (3).

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham in a media conference in Putrajaya said from 13,215 new cases, 13,202 involved local transmissions while 13 cases were imported.

He said 6,095 recovery cases were recorded bringing the cumulative recoveries to 765,800.

"There were 108,369 active cases reported today while the number of patients being treated at intensive care unit (ICU) was 885 people with 432 of them on respiratory assistance," he said.

According to Dr Noor Hisham, 110 deaths were recorded in the past 24 hours involving 95 locals and 15 foreigners, taking the death toll to 6,613.

He said the fatalities involved 45 cases in Selangor; Kuala Lumpur (23); Negeri Sembilan (11); Johor (seven); Pahang (five); Kedah and Sarawak four cases each; Melaka and Kelantan three cases each; Sabah (two) while Penang, Perak and Labuan recorded one case each.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said that Category One, involving asymptomatic COVID-19 patients, recorded 60.9 per cent cases while Category Two, which involves those with mild symptoms, recorded 35.1 per cent.

"Category Three, with lung infection; Category Four, with lung infection and needing respiratory assistance; as well as Category Five, requiring respiratory assistance, contributed to the remaining four per cent," he said.

He said Malaysia's COVID-19 infectivity rate (R-naught or Rt) yesterday was at 1.19.

He said Terengganu recorded the highest Rt rate at 1.40, while the other states that recorded the Rt rate higher than 1.0 were Putrajaya (1.31), Kedah (1.19), Selangor (1.18), Kuala Lumpur (1.17), Pahang (1.16), Melaka (1.15), Negeri Sembilan (1.13), Penang (1.10), Sabah (1.06), Johor (1.05) and Perak (1.04).

He added that a total of 26 new clusters were identified today, taking the total number of active clusters to 873.

"A total of 15 are workplace-linked clusters, six are community clusters, three are from detention centres and two from higher education institutions," he said.

-- BERNAMA