KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 5 — Covid-19 cases in Malaysia breached the 20,000-mark for the first time today since the pandemic last year.

The Health Ministry recorded 20,596 in the last 24 hours, surpassing yesterday’s high of 19,819 cases in a single day.

The country’s cumulative cases now stands at 1,203,706.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said Selangor alone accounted for 8,549 new cases, followed by Kuala Lumpur (2,163) and Kedah (1,446).

Johor was the next highest with 1,300 cases, followed by Sabah (1,062), Penang (1,022), Negri Sembilan (989), Perak (916), Kelantan (772), Sarawak (759), Melaka (622), Terengganu (501), Pahang (426), Putrajaya (50), Labuan (15), and Perlis (four).

Dr Noor Hisham said the national infectivity rate (R0) currently stands at 1.07, based on yesterday’s caseload.

Kelantan has the highest R0 value at 1.31.

Other states and Federal Territories that recorded an R0 above 1.0 are: Terengganu (1.27), Perak and Pahang (1.22), Penang (1.19), Sabah (1.17), Kedah (1.16), Johor (1.14), Kuala Lumpur (1.13), Sarawak (1.08), Putrajaya and Selangor (1.08), and Melaka (1.06).

Despite hovering around the 1,000-mark in daily cases today, Negri Sembilan recorded an R0 of 0.94.

Dr Noor Hisham said there were 33 new Covid-19 clusters, including 17 from workplaces, 13 from within the general community, two from detention centres, and one from a high-risk group.

He added that the clusters with the highest increase in new cases today were the Industri Persiaran Selangor Kuala Langat cluster (170 cases), Tapak Bina Warisan Tropika cluster (143 cases) and Solok Perusahaan Tiga cluster (122 cases).