The new COVID-19 cases in Malaysia returned to a single digit today compared to 18 reported yesterday, with only nine new cases were recorded, four of which are imported and five local transmission cases.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that this brings the cumulative figure of positive cases to 8,764, while the number of active cases with infectivity now stood at 96.

"Four imported cases involved three Malaysians and one non-citizen who is married to a Malaysian.

"The imported cases are from Indonesia with two cases; Singapore and Pakistan with one case each," he said in a statement today.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said that of the five local transmission cases, one involved non-citizen, detected during the screening before leaving for China, and the patient was asymptomatic and admitted to the Sarawak General Hospital.

Elaborating on the local transmission cases involving Malaysians, Dr Noor Hisham said that the remaining four cases were, namely, one case detected during contact screening linked to the Mambong Cluster; one case from screening at Bau Hospital, Kuching; and two cases linked to the new cluster, Stutong Cluster.

In the meantime, no deaths were reported and death toll due to COVID-19 remain at 122 since July 10.

He said that five cases had recovered and discharged today, bringing the cumulative number for recoveries to 8,546 cases while only one case was still treated in the intensive care unit (ICU).

-- BERNAMA