PUTRAJAYA, Nov 21 — Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said Malaysia has added another 1,041 Covid-19 infections.

Dr Noor Hisham announced the latest number during a special press briefing here today.

Today’s numbers meant Malaysia’s cumulative Covid-19 cases were now 53,679 but the situation was tempered by the 1,405 full recoveries made since the Health D-G’s briefing yesterday.

"Meanwhile, the number of active and infectious Covid-19 cases is 12,854,” Dr Noor Hisham said in a statement.

Only two cases were imported.

Selangor overtook Sabah today as the single state with the highest number of new Covid-19 cases, with 402 reported in Malaysia’s industrial centre. Sabah was a close second with 346, followed by Negri Sembilan with 121.

However, Dr Noor Hisham pointed out that the spike in Selangor’s cases was due primarily to the Teratai cluster that added 298 new infections.

The Health D-G also reported three more deaths related to Covid-19 today, which pushed Malaysia’s death toll up to 332 to date.

All the deaths were again restricted to Sabah. The latest deaths involved two local men aged 62 and 78 as well as a 55-year-old foreign woman, all of whom had pre-existing conditions such as hypertension and diabetes, among others.

The number of Covid-19 patients requiring intensive care or ventilators also remained low, at 108 and 45 cases, respectively.