KUALA LUMPUR (March 19): Malaysia recorded 1,576 new Covid-19 cases today, bringing the cumulative confirmed infections to 330,042.

This marks the second straight week of fewer than 2,000 cases per day.

Today’s cases are, however, higher than the 1,213 reported yesterday.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said two more Covid-19-related deaths were recorded, raising total fatalities to 1,225.

He said 1,996 patients were discharged in the latest 24-hour reporting period, raising total recoveries to 314,457.

With daily recoveries continuing to outnumber new cases, current active cases have fallen further to 14,360.

Dr Noor Hisham said 11 of today’s 1,576 cases were imported while the rest were transmitted locally.

Sarawak had the most Covid-19 infections at 407, of which 382 or 93.9% were from the existing clusters and close contact screenings, he said in a statement.

Other States with a high number of new infections were Selangor with 348 cases, Penang (182), Kuala Lumpur (175), Johor (137) and Perak (100).

A total of 298 cases were confirmed from Covid-19 hit prisons and detention centres.

They included the Semuja Immigration Depot cluster in Sarawak (146 infections), newly-discovered DTI Juru cluster in Penang (89), Tembok Muhasabah cluster in Negeri Sembilan (25), DTI Jalan Duta cluster in Kuala Lumpur (14),  Tembok Pengkalan Chepa cluster in Kelantan (12), Telok Mas cluster in Melaka (11), and Tembok Taiping cluster in Perak (one).

The two fatalities were reported in Selangor and Sarawak respectively. Both were Malaysian men aged 55 and 71 years.

The Health Ministry also detected 12 new clusters, comprising 10 workplace clusters and  two involving detention centres.

The 10 workplace clusters are Sungai Berumbung  in Johor (13), Lorong Usaha Utama in Johor (seven), Jalan Dahlia 22 in Johor (13), Jalan Industri Sofa in Johor (55),  Jalan Besar Kepong in Kuala Lumpur (17), Jalan Daun cluster which spans Kuala Lumpur and Selangor (eight), Lorong Nibong in Kuala Lumpur (21), Persiaran Hemisfera in Selangor (13), Tapak Bina Persiaran Cybersouth in Selangor (10) and Bandar Baru in Selangor (50).

The two clusters were linked to detention centres, namely DTI Juru in Penang saw 167 infections, and DTI Jalan Duta with 18 infections.

To date, 1,288 clusters have been identified in the country while 861 have ended.