KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 8 — The Health Ministry today reported 2,643 new Covid-19 cases and the highest daily casualties in Malaysia so far with 16 deaths reported in the past 24 hours.

Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this brings the total number of deaths in the country to 537, or 0.41 per cent of all total cases.

"The increase in deaths today is due to the phenomenon where some cases require a certain period of time for further investigations before they can be confirmed as having been caused by Covid-19,” he said in a statement.

Nine of the 16 deaths were reported in Selangor, followed by four in Sabah and three in Johor.

The victims — all Malaysians were aged between 44- to 79-years-old all with a medical history varying from diabetes, high-blood pressure, gout, dyslipidaemia, obesity, stroke, as well as heart and kidney diseases, among others.

Today sees 2,643 new cases, bringing the total number of recorded cases to 131,108, with the current number of active cases at 25,140.

Of today’s cases, two are import cases in which the infection occurred abroad. The remaining 2,641 domestic cases involved 1,666 Malaysians and 975 foreigners.

"Selangor has the highest number of infections with 1,086 cases or 41.1 per cent of today’s reported cases. Of this number, 904 cases are from clusters and close-contact tracing on the field.

"This is followed by Sabah with 401 cases or 15.2 per cent, and Johor with 298 cases or 11.3 per cent,” Dr Noor Hisham said.

Three per cent or 79 cases of today’s tally are related to clusters in lock-ups, Immigration detention depots, and prisons, which include the Penjara Jalan Harapan cluster with 73 cases, the Pagar Siput cluster with three cases, the Tembok Choh cluster with two cases and the Tembok Gajah cluster with one case.

"As for recoveries, the ministry has recorded a total of 2,708 recoveries today, bringing the total number of recoveries from Covid-19 in Malaysia to 105,431 cases or 80.4 per cent of all total cases.

"Presently, there are 170 positive cases still being treated in Intensive Care Units, of which 82 require breathing assistance,” he said.