KUALA LUMPUR, April 5 — Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said Malaysia’s total coronavirus disease (Covid-19) infections was now 3,662.

In his daily Covid-19 press conference, he reported 179 new cases and four deaths, for a total of 61 fatalities from the disease.

Recoveries were at 1,005 discharged, with 2,596 cases still considered active.

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Dr Noor Hisham also stressed the need for patients to be honest about their possible exposure to Covid-19, saying that withholding such information could cause new infection clusters to emerge.

“For example, from investigations conducted, there was a cluster that came from a Covid-19 index patient (Case 1,580) with a history of travel to Italy.

“So far from that cluster, there have been 37 people confirmed to be positive for Covid-19, with five deaths, and one in critical condition requiring breathing support,” he said.

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The four deaths reported today were of a 72-year-old man in Sarawak with a history of diabetes and high blood pressure; a 68-year-old diabetic man in Kuala Lumpur; a 66-year-old with diabetes, high blood pressure, and kidney disease in Sabah; and a 53-year-old man with no reported pre-existing condition in Sarawak.

Dr Noor Hisham went on to remind Malaysians to continue obeying the movement control order (MCO) and practise social distancing when outside their homes, saying these measures were crucial to break the chain of Covid-19 infections.

Malaysia is nearly three weeks into the MCO, but has continued to report new cases at nearly the same rate as before the nationwide halt of non-essential activities.

Authorities have repeatedly warned that it was critical to observe the MCO to give the country any chance of containing the highly contagious Covid-19.

Globally, Covid-19 infections have topped 1.2 million with nearly 65,000 deaths.