KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia today recorded its highest daily death toll since the COVID-19 pandemic began in the country, with 207 fatalites reported in the last 24 hours.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this brought the total number of deaths in the country so far to 8,201, or 0.8 per cent of the total cases.

He said the casualties today comprised 184 citizens and 23 foreigners. The previous highest death toll was 199, reported on July 21.

Meanwhile, he said 1,009 cases were placed in Intensive Care Units (ICU) nationwide, with 524 of them requiring respirator aid.

"A total of 9,372 cases recovered within the last 24 hours, taking the cumulative number of those cured from the disease to 853,913 cases or 83.1 per cent, while there are currently 165,840 active cases," he said in a post on his Facebook page today.

Elaborating, Dr Noor Hisham said 207 deaths were reported today, 57 in Selangor, followed by Kuala Lumpur (52), Johor (24), Kedah (19) and Melaka (18), Negeri Sembilan (14), Pahang (7), Sabah (6), Perak (5), Penang (3) and Terengganu (2).

Dr Noor Hisham said out of the 14,516 new cases reported today, 95 cases or 0.7 per cent (97.9 per cent of cases were not vaccinated) are Category Five, which are critical cases requiring respiratory support.

"A total of 77 cases or 0.5 per cent (85.7 per cent cases not vaccinated) are Category Four (pneumonia and requiring oxygen support), while 83 cases or 0.6 per cent (67.5 per cent cases not vaccinated) are Category Three (pneumonia).

"A total of 7,045 cases or 48.5 per cent (87.6 per cent cases not vaccinated) are Category Two (mild symptoms) and 7,216 cases or 49.7 per cent (95.6 per cent cases not vaccinated) are Category One (no symptoms), he said.

Dr Noor Hisham added that all statistics and percentages were reported based on the current clinical condition of patients diagonsed with COVID-19.

"Some of them remain in the same category throughout their infections, but there are those whose health status changes, either for the better to a lower category, or deteriorate to a higher category.

"The majority of new COVID-19 cases, 92 per cent, had not received their vaccine. Therefore, please get vaccinated to protect yourself and your family from COVID-19 infections," he said.

Based on data till yesterday, he said the infectivity rate (RT) for Malaysia was 1.15, while states that registered the highest RT value were Terengganu at 1.36, followed by Kedah (1.26) and Sabah (1.24).

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said 33 new clusters were detected, 21 of them workplace clusters, 10 community clusters and two involving educational institutions.

--BERNAMA