KUALA LUMPUR, May 9 — Malaysia’s see-sawing Covid-19 numbers fell today, with Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reporting 3,733 new infections after two consecutive days above the 4,000-case mark.

Selangor continued to lead other states in terms of new cases, with the country’s industrial centre accumulating another 1,278 Covid-19 patients over the past 24 hours.

Sarawak was next highest with 454 cases, ahead of Johor with 365 and Kuala Lumpur with 338.

Despite the reduction in new infections, the deadliness of Covid-19 appeared to be growing as the Health Ministry reported 26 more fatalities among patients, the highest single-day tally in the country so far.

The previous record for Covid-19 deaths was 25 people on February 18.

To date, Malaysia has lost 1,683 patients to Covid-19 since the pandemic first arrived in the country.

Crucially, demand on intensive care units also appeared to be accelerating, with 416 Covid-19 patients now in ICUs across the country.

Of the ICU patients, 216 also required ventilators.

Full recoveries continued to lag behind new infections today albeit at a lesser degree, with the Health Ministry reporting 3,211 patients discharged.

This meant a net increase to the number of active cases to 37,060.