COVID-19: Malaysia records 62 new cases today, cumulative total reaches five digits

The latest development also took the overall tally of infectivity cases to 668.

He said that of the new cases, 61 were local transmissions involving 41 Malaysians and 20 foreigners while the one import case was that of a Malaysian returning from India.

A total of 59 of the new cases were in Sabah, involving 48 from the Benteng LD Cluster, including 20 foreigners, he told a press conference on the COVID-19 situation, here.

He said the other 11 cases in Sabah were detected following the screening of health workers at the Lahad Datu Hospital (four cases); at the international entry points from Peninsular Malaysia (three cases); at the Lahad Datu Health Clinic (two cases); and one case each from the Pulau and Sandakan prison clusters.

"Kedah also recorded one case from the Sungai Cluster while Penang had one case from the close contact screening of a family member of cases 9,397 and 9,459," he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said 26 recoveries were recorded today, raising the cumulative number of recoveries to 9,235 cases or 92.1 per cent of the total number of cases. No new deaths were reported today, with the death toll remaining at 128.

"To date, 15 cases are under treatment in intensive care, with three of them requiring respiratory assistance," he said.

He added that active cases continued to increase daily while the number of positive cases being treated in the intensive care unit was found to be rising as well.

Dr Noor Hisham said that if the situation continued, health facilities in the country would be overwhelmed again.

So, to avoid such a situation from recurring, everyone must play his or her role and comply with the standard operating procedure (SOP) issued and advice given by the government, he said.