KUALA LUMPUR: New COVID-19 cases in the country for the past 24 hours have increased to 4,855 cases, compared with 4,765 cases recorded yesterday.

Health director-general, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, in a post on his Twitter account, said that during the period Selangor still recorded the highest number of daily cases with 1,783, followed by Kuala Lumpur (521) and Johor (467).

Sarawak and Penang each recorded 395 cases; Kelantan (339); Perak (302); Kedah (193); Terengganu (148); Negeri Sembilan (100); Sabah (76); Melaka (67); Pahang (56); Putrajaya (nine); Labuan (four), while there are no cases in Perlis.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham, in a statement, said of the total of new cases, three were imported cases while 4,852 cases were local transmission.

"Imported cases involved three foreigners, while local cases involved 4,494 Malaysians and 358 foreigners," he said.

He also said that in the last 24 hours, a total of 3,347 recovered cases were recorded, making cumulative total of 414,707 recoveries, while the current active cases are at 41,582.

A total of 481 cases were placed in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), with 247 of them requiring respiratory assistance, while the number of deaths due to the pandemic rose to 1,788 people, following 27 new deaths reported today, he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said that eight new clusters were detected today, with five involving transmission in the workplace, two clusters involving the community and one religious-related cluster.

The new workplace clusters detected are Jalan Keretapi Lama Cluster (Selangor); Lima Jalan Kebun Cluster (Selangor); Jalan Tropika Industri Cluster (Johor); Jalan Suasa Industri Cluster (Johor) and Jalan Chain Ferry Cluster (Penang); while two community clusters are in Sarawak, namely, Jalan Lilin Cluster and Kongsi Lapan Cluster; and the religious-related cluster is Tanjung Rimau Cluster (Melaka).

"The latest developments bring the total number of clusters to 1,848, with 457 of them being active clusters," he said, adding that the total number of clusters declared ended thus far was 1,391.

-- BERNAMA