KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 2,717 new COVID-19 cases were reported in Malaysia in the last 24 hours, a slight drop from the 2,847 cases yesterday, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

In a posting on his official Twitter account, he said this brings the cumulative figure for positive cases to 390,252.

Selangor tops the new case list with 768 cases, followed by Sarawak (570), Kelantan (518), Kuala Lumpur (240) and Penang (134).

A total of 132 cases were recorded in Sabah, followed by Johor (126), Perak (54), Terengganu (50), Kedah (34), Melaka (30), Negeri Sembilan (27), Pahang (22), Putrajaya (11) and Perlis (one).

Labuan did not record any new cases.

Meanwhile, through an official statement on the development of COVID-19 today, Dr Noor Hisham said from the total new cases reported, 26 were imported cases while 2,691 cases involved domestic transmissions.

“The imported cases involved two citizens and 24 non-citizens while local cases involved 2,493 citizens and 198 non-citizens,” he said.

He said 2,292 recovery cases were recorded while 272 patients required treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with 124 needing respiratory assistance.

He said 11 deaths were reported involving 10 locals and one non-citizen which brought the cumulative deaths to 1,426 people while active cases currently stood at 22,926.

Dr Noor Hisham said 10 new clusters were detected today with seven involving workplaces, two were community clusters and one cluster involving school or educational institution under the Ministry of Education.

-The new workplace clusters are two in Selangor, namely, in Jalan Abdul Karim and Jalan Melor, two in Perak, namely, Lebuh Ipoh-Lumut and Jalan Datoh,  Tingkat Mak Mandin Pulau (Penang), D’Lahar (Terengganu), Desa Mawar (Pahang), meanwhile the community clusters are Jalan Kolam Dua (Perak) and  Dambai Inanam (Sabah) and the education cluster is Jalan St Thomas (Kuala Lumpur).

‘’The latest development brings the total number of clusters to 1,583 with 352 active clusters and 12 declared ended today, bringing the total number of clusters that have ended at 1,231," he said.

The clusters that have ended are the Pandan Roundabout construction site, Inanam Taipan, Jalan Alam, Jalan Long Yunus, Taman Ria Enam and Melamam, as well as Begalak, Jalan Firma Dua, Sementa 27, Lintang Kampung Jawa, Sungai Atap and Jalan Satu construction site.

On the discovery of 17 cases of the South African B.1.351 variant which had been reported since last January until March, Dr Noor Hisham said the COVID-19 genomic surveillance continued to be conducted by involving more samples nationwide.

“Latest, through genomic surveillance conducted from April 15, 2021, to April 21, 2021, the Institute of Medical Research (IMR) had identified and confirmed the existence of four more local COVID-19 cases which were infected with the South African B.1.351 variant, bringing the total cases to 21.

“Of the total, three cases were reported in the Kuala Langat district while one more case is the first case outside Selangor, namely, a COVID-19 case which was confirmed at the Tuanku Jaafar Hospital in Seremban, Negeri Sembilan,” he added.

 -- BERNAMA