KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 7 — Malaysia today reported a new record of 3,027 Covid-19 daily infections.

In a statement this evening, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said Johor recorded 1,103 cases followed by Selangor and Sabah at 706 and 493 cases respectively.

This is the first time Johor recorded the highest number of cases compared to other states that have been leading in numbers such as Selangor and Sabah.

Yesterday, a supposed document of an internal meeting within the National Security Council (NSC) and several other government agencies went viral and suggested a possible lockdown in several states.

However, the NSC rejected this as false.

Yesterday, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that the Malaysian healthcare system was now “pressured and at a breaking point” and there is a need for a circuit breaker or targeted lockdown.

In today’s update, Malaysia also recorded eight deaths, bringing the total to 521 so far.

The country has so far recorded 128,465 infections, with 25,742 cases still active. Those discharged today were at 2,145 patients, bringing the total to 102,723 to date.

Yesterday, Dr Noor Hisham said the Ministry of Health (MOH) is bracing for another spike in cases in the coming weeks on the back of the recent festive season.

Malaysia reported 2,593 cases, with 965 alone recorded in Selangor yesterday, and the basic reproduction number (R-nought or R0) of Covid-19 infections has now also increased to 1.1 despite the authorities targeting to bring it down to 0.5 previously.

In his daily press conference yesterday, Dr Noor Hisham did not answer questions directly when asked if the time had come to reimpose the movement control order (MCO) or ban interstate travel to stem the spread of Covid-19 infections.

He instead maintained that the MOH is working closely with the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) to see if the agency can find a way to isolate positive cases with asymptomatic and mild symptoms away from the community.