KUALA LUMPUR, June 17 — New Covid-19 cases in Malaysia continue to remain within the 5,000-case range, with 5,738 new infections reported over the last 24 hours.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, in a tweet today, revealed Selangor remains the state with the highest number of new cases with 1,858, followed by Negri Sembilan with 1,086 cases, and Kuala Lumpur with 641.

In the same 24-hour window, Sarawak reported 559 new cases, Johor 449, and Sabah 241. Perlis was the only state with zero new cases.

Of today’s new cases, 1,399 are from existing clusters, 2,761 from close contacts of positive cases, three are imported cases, and 1,575 cases listed as sporadic infections.

Malaysia’s latest cumulative case count now stands at 678,764 infections, with 66,097 currently active.

In a statement later, Dr Noor Hisham said there were 60 more people who died of Covid-19 over the last 24 hours. Malaysia’s total death count is now at 4,202, representing a 0.62 per cent fatality rate.

The youngest death reported today was a 29-year old Malaysian man who died in Hospital Tuanku Jaafar in Negri Sembilan, and the oldest was of a 91-year old Malaysian man who died at the Cheras Rehabilitation Hospital.

However, the number of patients admitted to Intensive Care Units (ICU) nationwide dropped slightly to 909, down from 924 the day before; 441 are currently intubated, down from 453 yesterday.

Dr Noor Hisham said over the same period, 7,530 more patients were cured and discharged, bringing the cumulative discharged count to 608,465 cases with a recovery rate of 89.6 per cent.

His statement also reported 25 new Covid-19 infection clusters, 19 of which were workplace related clusters mainly in Selangor, Johor, Kedah, Penang, and one each in Sarawak and Negri Sembilan.

Three new clusters were from community infections, and one detected at a private education institution.