KUALA LUMPUR, March 21 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) today reported another 153 new coronavirus disease (Covid-19) infections.

These latest cases bring the country’s total to 1,183, said the Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

"Of the 153 new positive cases, 90 of the cases are from the tabligh gathering clustre.

"The MOH with a heavy heart also wishes to announce that in the last 24 hours, there have been two deaths reported. This brings the total amount of deaths to four,” he said during a press conference today.

Both deaths are linked to the tabligh gathering cluster.

According to Dr Noor Hisham, the third death case that he first disclosed last night on Facebook was Patient 152, a Malaysian man aged 58 and who was part of the cluster linked to the tabligh gathering that took place at Jamek Sri Petaling Mosque in Kuala Lumpur from February 27 to March 1.

The man had been admitted to Tawau Hospital and died at 6.27pm yesterday.

He also revealed that the fourth death was Patient 238, a man aged 50 who was also part of the cluster linked to the tabligh gathering. The man was admitted to Melaka Hospital on March 12 with severe acute respiratory infection.

On the fifth day, he was placed on a ventilator in intensive care, but however his condition deteriorated from that point on and died at 1.30am this morning, Noor Hisham said.

When asked if Patient 152 had any underlying sickness, Noor Hisham said he did not have any non-communicable diseases, or comorbidity, compared to the first death who had diabetes and high blood pressure.

The two other Covid-19 fatalities in Malaysia are a 34-year-old man from Johor, who also attended the Sri Petaling tabligh, and a 60-year-old pastor from Sarawak.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham also said 27 more cases made recovery today and are ready to be discharged. This brings total recovered cases to 114.

After the Health D-G’s press conference, Sarawak independently reported two more Covid-19 deaths in the state.