The number of new COVID-19 infections in the country surged to triple digits again today, with 111 cases reported in the last 24 hours.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said 107 of them were local transmissions, involving 76 Malaysians and 31 foreigners, while four were import cases.

Sabah once again recorded the majority of cases with 97, an increase of 34 cases after yesterday’s 63 infections.

He said the 97 cases comprised 74 from the Bangau-Bangau cluster, 13 from the Benteng LD cluster, two from the Laut cluster, two from hospital reference screenings, two workplace screenings, one severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) case at Tawau hospital and one international entry screening case.

“Eight new local transmissions were in Kedah, involving seven from the Sungai cluster and one SARI case at Sultanah Bahiyah hospital, while Pahang and Selangor each recorded one symptomatic screening case who had travelled to Semporna and Kota Kinabalu in Sabah,” he said in a statement on COVID-19 developments today.

As for the four import cases, they involved foreigners from Indonesia (two cases), India (one case) and Singapore (one case).

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said 30 recovery cases were recorded today, while there are four cases in the intensive care unit with three of them requiring ventilator support.

No deaths were reported today.

Dr Noor Hisham also sent out a reminder to those with symptoms who had visited from red zones or from there to undergo screening while those without symptoms were also encouraged to do the same and also self-quarantine themselves.

He also said that there were 10 positive cases among those who had returned from Sabah in the 39th epid (epidemiological) week (Sept 20 till today) and they have been isolated and are being treated in hospital.

There are now five red zones in the country, four of which are in Sabah (Tawau, Lahad Datu, Kunak and Semporna) and one more in Kedah (Kota Setar).

Dr Noor Hisham urged those in Sabah to be extra vigilant and step up compliance of standard operating procedures (SOPs) including during the state election period, which ends tomorrow with polling.

“The people are encouraged to remind each other to adhere to SOPs so that we can protect ourselves and our families from COVID-19,” he said.

-- BERNAMA