KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia today recorded 1,575 new cases of COVID-19, with three deaths reported in the last 24 hours.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said there were also 2,042 recoveries in the same period, bringing the cumulative number of those recovered to 302,662, while the total number of deaths due to the epidemic stood at 1,203.

"Of the new cases today, 1,568 involved local transmissions, comprising 1,269 Malaysians and 299 non-citizens, while the other seven are import cases," he said via his official Twitter account today.

Dr Noor Hisham said Selangor continued to record the highest number of daily new cases with 751, followed by Sarawak (173) and Johor (135).

Meanwhile, he said 147 cases were being treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), with 67 of them requiring respiratory assistance.

Dr Noor Hisham said the three deaths recorded today involved two locals and one non-citizen aged 59 to 69, with one case each in Sabah, Selangor and Kuala Lumpur, all of whom suffered from chronic diseases.

Meanwhile, he said ten new clusters were identified today, five of them being workplace-related.

“The workplace-related clusters are the Jalan Industri Dua Cluster in Selangor, Jalan Pelepas Dua Cluster (Johor), Lintang Bayan Lepas Cluster (Penang), Jalan Laksamana Cluster (Perak) and Ladang Bukit Cluster (Terengganu).

"For the community clusters, meanwhile, (three) were detected in Sarawak, namely Jalan Main Bazaar, Sena and Buloh Pasi; and two in Selangor, namely Jalan Tempua and Jalan Kunci Air," he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said 792 clusters had ended to date, including 10 more clusters today, namely the Jalan Budiman Cluster, Jalan Harmonium Cluster, Batu 38 Cluster, Taman Segar Cluster, Bentong Sebelas Industrial Cluster, Jalan Pengkalan Cluster, Jalan Firma Tiga Cluster, Jalan Canggih Cluster, Jalan Panah Construction Site Cluster, and the Bintang Daily Cluster.

Dr Noor Hisham said this brought the total number of active clusters to 440, with 60 of them registering new cases today.

According to him, the clusters with the highest number of new cases today are the Lintang Bayan Lepas Cluster with 26 cases, the DTI Persiaran Wawasan Cluster (26 cases), and the Teknologi Emas Cluster (24 cases).

-- BERNAMA