KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 1,448 new daily COVID-19 cases were reported today, a slight increase from 1,280 reported yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of COVID-19 cases in Malaysia to 317,717 cases.

Health-director general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the number of recoveries was 2,137, higher than the new cases reported, bringing the total to 298, 516, he said in a statement on the development of COVID-19 here today.

"Of the new cases today, 1,438 are local cases, namely 878 citizens and 560 non-citizens and 10 cases are imported cases that were infected abroad," he said adding that the number of active cases today stood at 18,010.

Five more deaths were reported bringing the total number of fatalities to 1,191, while 151 patients are currently receiving treatment in Intensive Care Units (ICU) with 72 of them in need of respiratory assistance, he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said the five deaths recorded today involved two cases in Selangor, and one each in Johor, Melaka, and Sabah.

He said that Selangor still recorded the highest number of new cases at 561, followed by Johor at 273 and Sarawak at 199, adding that 15 cases were related to clusters in prisons and immigration detention depots.

Dr Noor Hisham said five new clusters were detected with two clusters involving workplaces, two community clusters and one import cluster namely the Pona cluster in Johor.

"The new workplace clusters recorded are Parit Penyengat Darat in Johor and Dagang Permai (Selangor). The two community clusters are Sungai Puteh (Selangor) and Melor (Sarawak).

He said these new clusters brought the active clusters tally to 449, of which 59 recorded an increase in new cases today.

He added the Jalan Zamrud construction site cluster recorded the highest new cases at 151, followed by Parit Penyengat Darat (123) and Jalan Changkat Jong (49).

-- BERNAMA