KUALA LUMPUR (May 19): Malaysia hit another daily high of 6,075 new Covid-19 cases today — up from 4,865 yesterday — pushing cumulative positive cases in the country to 485,496, according to Health Ministry director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a statement today.

The previous record high number of daily cases was 5,728, recorded on Jan 30 this year.

Also reported today were 46 Covid-19 fatalities, one below the peak of 47 cases seen yesterday, which pushed the nationwide death toll from the coronavirus past the 2,000 mark, to 2,040. Of the latest fatalities, 19 were in Selangor, seven in Sarawak, six in Johor, four in Kelantan, two each in Sabah, Kuala Lumpur, Penang and Kedah, and one each in Negeri Sembilan and Melaka.  

Selangor continued to record the highest number of Covid-19 infections with 2,251, followed by Johor (699), Kuala Lumpur (660), Kedah (445) and Kelantan (441). Most other States also recorded three-digit new cases, namely Sarawak (323), Perak (220), Terengganu (203), Negeri Sembilan (189), Penang (183), Sabah (160), Pahang (150) and Melaka (122).

Among the smaller States and Federal Territories, Labuan recorded 14 cases, followed by Putrajaya with nine cases. Perlis, which is a yellow-zone State, recorded six cases.

Daily recoveries, on the other hand, came in at 3,516 cases, raising cumulative recoveries to 436,116, representing a recovery rate of 89.8%.

Active cases now stand at 47,340, which marks the eight consecutive day that the figure has stayed above the 40,000 mark after breaching that level last Wednesday.

The Ministry also reported that 559 cases are being treated in intensive care units, with 303 patients on ventilators.

The Ministry has also identified 22 new Covid-19 clusters in the past 24 hours — the highest reported in a single day.

Eight of them were workplaces clusters, seven were community clusters, while six were clusters related to places of worship and one was related to an educational institution.

"It is hoped that everyone is cognisant of the current situation that has befallen our country and can work closely together so that we can go through this difficult moment in fighting Covid-19 as a united nation," Dr Noor Hisham said.