KUALA LUMPUR, July 17 — Covid-19 claimed 138 lives in the country today, a new record according to Health Ministry data.

The previous record high was 135 deaths on July 8.

The number of patients admitted into intensive care wards was 908 as of noon today, with 425 needing breathing aid.

As of today, there have been a total of 6,866 deaths recorded since the pandemic struck the country, encompassing 0.76 per cent of 905,851 of total cases.

The Health Ministry also recorded 6,629 new recoveries today, raising the total number of survivors to 779,171 people.

Currently, there are 119,814 active cases, of which 12,528 new infections were recorded in the last 24 hours.

Earlier today, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah had announced that asymptomatic cases made up 54.6 per cent of Covid-19 infections recorded in the last 24 hours.

Out of the 12,528 people infected, 6,840 were from Category 1, which are those who show no symptoms of the disease at all.

Those with mild symptoms are in Category 2 and make up 5,468 people, Dr Noor Hisham said on Twitter, adding that another 112 people are in Category 3.

Categories 4 and 5 — comprising those with severe symptoms that require treatment in intensive care wards — collectively made up 108 patients, he said. Category 5 patients are the ones who need ventilators and there were 44 as of yesterday.