KUALA LUMPUR: The number of new COVID-19 positive cases in the country in the past 24 hours dropped to 1,555 compared to 1,828 yesterday, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said the latest development took the total number of infections in the country to 304,135, with 24,563 of them being active cases.

He said that of the new cases, three were imported cases who were infected abroad while 1,552 were local transmissions.

"All three imported cases involved foreigners while the local transmissions involved 1,108 Malaysians and 444 foreigners.

"A total of 2,528 recoveries were also reported today, taking the total number of recoveries to 278,431,” he told the daily COVID-19 press conference today.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said 204 cases are being treated in the intensive care units, with 96 of them intubated, adding that six fatalities were reported today, involving five Malaysians and one foreigner.

Selangor, he said, had the highest number of new cases today with 672, followed by Johor (163 cases) and Sarawak (159).

Meanwhile, he said seven new clusters were detected today, with six involving workplaces and one involving a high-risk group.

The new workplace-related clusters were in Taman Alam, Sementa 27and Jalan Mawar in Selangor; Jalan DBP Enam and Jalan Cyber Satu in Johor; and Persiaran Bayan Indah in Penang. The high-risk group cluster was detected in Jalan Bukit Blossoms, Negeri Sembilan.

Dr Noor Hisham said the latest development took the total number of clusters in the country, as of now, to 1,152, of which 489 are active clusters.

He also said that six clusters were ended today, taking the total number of clusters ended to 663

-- BERNAMA