KUALA LUMPUR, July 29 — Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah announced that Malaysia registered 17,170 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, bringing the cumulative total in the country to 1,078,646.

This is the second straight day the country has reported more than 17,000 cases, after yesterday’s 17,405, which was also the highest on record.

Dr Noor Hisham disclosed on Twitter that Selangor remained the state recording the most new cases in a day, with 7,163 Covid-19 cases identified.

Other states recording more than 1,000 cases are Kuala Lumpur (2,138), Kedah (1,212) and Johor (1,054).

Only the federal territories of Putrajaya and Labuan recorded fewer than 100 Covid-19 cases, with 84 and 11 respectively.

Other states that recorded new cases are: Negri Sembilan (884), Sabah (776), Pahang (638), Kelantan (615), Perak (596), Sarawak (582), Penang (554), Terengganu (437), and Melaka (416).

Dr Noor Hisham added that the nationwide rate of infection in the country as of July 28 is at 1.16, with Terengganu having the highest rate of infection among all states across the country at 1.33.

"Of today’s 17,170 new cases, 32 of them were imported into the country while the remaining was transmitted locally,” said Dr Noor Hisham.

He added that 174 deaths from Covid-19 were also registered today, bringing the cumulative number of deaths in the country to 8,725.

Dr Noor Hisham also shared that there are currently 179,179 active Covid-19 cases in the country, with 1,043 of them being treated in intensive care units (ICU) - a new high for the country.

"Of the 1,043 patients in the ICU, 531 of them need breathing assistance,” he said.

On a positive note, Dr Noor Hisham said that 12,930 patients have recovered from Covid-19, bringing the total number of recoveries to 890,742 nationwide.