KUALA LUMPUR, July 19 — The Health Ministry recorded 10,972 new cases of Covid-19 today, a slight increase from yesterday’s number of 10,710 cases.

Selangor still tops the list of states and territories with 4,404 cases, followed by Negri Sembilan with 1,340 cases, and Johor with 876 cases.

Perlis had the fewest cases, only one, followed by Labuan at 24 cases, and Putrajaya with 48 cases.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said 48 cases were infected while abroad. These comprised 28 Malaysians and 20 foreigners.

"The remaining 10,924 domestic cases include 8,950 Malaysians or 81.9 per cent of the total, as well as 1,974 foreign citizens or 18.1 per cent of the total,” he said in a statement.

This brings the cumulative number of cases recorded in the country to 927,533, of which 128,997 are still classified as active.

Dr Noor Hisham also said the national reproduction rate (R0) for the virus currently stands at 1.15.

Terengganu leads the states and federal territories with the highest R0 value at 1.27, followed by Putrajaya at 1.26 and Kedah at 1.24.

The best R0 nationwide is Perlis, which is zero.

The virus appears to be petering out in Labuan, which was recently the epicentre of an outbreak; its R0 value is now 0.77

Sarawak is the other state with an R0 value below 1.0, showing that infections are slowing down there. Its R0 is at 0.93, Dr Noor Hisham said.

The ministry also recorded the emergence of 31 new Covid-19 clusters nationwide for today, bringing the total number of clusters in the country to 3,281.

"Presently 2,361 clusters have been deemed by the ministry to have ended, leaving 920 clusters still active. Today’s clusters are concentrated in Johor, Penang, KL Federal Territory, Melaka, Kedah, Perak, Sabah, Selangor, Kelantan, and Terengganu.

"These include 18 workplace-related clusters, eight community clusters, two high-risk group clusters, two detention centre clusters, and one import-related cluster,” Dr Noor Hisham said.