KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 19 — Malaysia’s Covid-19 cases soared to 22,948 barely a day after it set a new record.

The Health Ministry recorded 22,242 new cases yesterday.

South-east Asia’s third largest economy has chalked up 1,489,460 cumulative cases to date since the start of the pandemic last year.

Selangor still holds the top spot for highest number of cases by state, recording 7,175 cases.

This is followed by Sabah with 2,583 cases and Kedah with 2,137 cases.

Other states with cases in the four-digit range were Penang (1,655), Johor (1,526), Kuala Lumpur (1,439), Kelantan (1,271), Perak (1,229) and Sarawak (1,206).

Remaining states recording Covid-19 cases were Melaka (737), Pahang (736), Terengganu (621), Negri Sembilan (556), Perlis (42), Putrajaya (26) and Labuan (nine).

"Of the 22,948 new cases today, only nine were imported into the country. They involve four locals and five foreigners,” said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said added only 2 per cent of today’s cases were in categories 3, 4 and 5, which require hospitalisation, while the remaining 98 per cent were in categories 1 and 2.

"Overall, 17,981 or 78.4 per cent of those infected today either have only received one dose of the Covid-19 vaccine or have not had it at all,” said Dr Noor Hisham.

Malaysia also recorded 178 new deaths today, involving 155 locals and 23 foreigners. This number includes 35 who were brought-in-dead (BID), of which 26 were locals, while nine were foreigners.

"Of the 178 deaths today, 65 were cases from Selangor, 36 from Johor, 23 from Kuala Lumpur,  11 from Sabah, eight each from Penang, Pahang and Melaka, five from Kelantan, four each from Negri Sembilan, Sarawak and Terengganu and one each from Kedah and Perak,” said Dr Noor Hisham.

Dr Noor Hisham added that there are 1,060 currently being treated in intensive care units (ICU), with 528 of them needing the help of ventilators to help them breathe.

On Covid-19 clusters, 42 were detected in the last 24 hours, with 23 of them involving workplaces, 15 from community transmissions, two involving holding facilities, one involving a high risk group and one involving a religious activity.

Dr Noor Hisham also shared that the nationwide rate of infection still stands at 1.04, with Perlis still the highest and recording an increase in its rate of infection at 1.33, followed by Sarawak at 1.21 and Sabah at 1.19.

"Every state is recording a rate of infection higher than 1.0 except Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Labuan and Negri Sembilan,” he said.

On the brighter side, 21,720 people have recovered from the deadly disease, bringing the cumulative number of recoveries in the country past 1.2 million, with 1,220,446 or 81.9 per cent recovered cases recorded.