KUALA LUMPUR: The number of new COVID-19 cases in the country continue to show a downward trend, with 1,280 cases reported today.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said Malaysia's infection tally now stood at 316,269, with 18,704 of them active cases.

"Of the new cases, 1,278 were local transmissions, involving 919 Malaysians and 359 foreigners, while two more were import cases, involving a Malaysian and a foreigner respectively," Dr Noor Hisham said in a media statement here today.

There were also 2,345 recovery cases reported overnight, with the recovery tally now at 296,379 or 93 per cent, he added.

Dr Noor Hisham said 155 COVID-19 patients are being treated in the intensive care unit currently, 76 of them intubated, while the country also recorded nine fatalities overnight, involving eight Malaysians and a foreigner.

"Selangor, with 464 infections, continued to record the highest number of new cases, followed by Johor (165 cases) and Sarawak (163 cases).

Meanwhile, he said nine new clusters were detected today, six of them involving workplaces, two involving transmissions in the community and one more involving the high-risk group, taking the total number of clusters so far to 1,212, of which 457 were active.

The new workplace clusters detected were Jalan Nusa Mega and Jalan Industri A1 in Johor, Tapak Bina Jalan U-Thant and Tapak Bina Jalan Salak in Kuala Lumpur, Lorong Kilang (Selangor) and Medan Bayan Lepas (Penang).

"The community clusters, meanwhile, were Sungai Lembing (Pahang) and Jalan Setia Jaya (Johor), while Amanjaya in Kedah was identified as a high-risk group cluster," he said.

Also, 19 clusters were officially declared ended today, taking the number of ended clusters to 755.

-- BERNAMA