KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 22 — Malaysia recorded 14,990 new Covid-19 infections over the past 24 hours, with Selangor the only state above the 2,000-mark at 2,414 new infections.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the latest tally pushed the cumulative total number of cases to 2,142,924 since the pandemic arrived in Malaysia.

This was followed by Johor (1,880), Sarawak (1,712), Kelantan (1,573), Perak (1,490), Penang (1,224), Sabah (1,199) and Kedah (1,007), making them only eight states that recorded cases above the 1,000 mark.

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The Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, meanwhile, recorded 338 new infections in the same 24-hour period.

Only three states recorded new infections below 100, namely Perlis (97), Putrajaya (30) and Labuan (three).

Malaysians made up the majority of cases at 13,763 individuals, while the remaining 1,222 were foreigners.

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In a statement later, Dr Noor Hisham revealed that there were 1,115 individuals requiring intensive care treatment, of which 882 were confirmed Covid-19 cases and the remaining 233 under investigation.

“Of the 1,115, a total of 618 require breathing assistance,” he said.

The number of recoveries also surpassed today’s figure at 19,702 people.

On the overall cases reported, Dr Noor Hisham said 338 or 2.3 per cent were of Categories 3, 4 and 5 patients.

Apart from that, another 26 new clusters were registered today — 13 were workplace clusters, seven community clusters, five education clusters and one high-risk cluster — for a combined total of 1,306 active clusters to date.

Dr Noor Hisham also said the nationwide Covid-19 infectivity rate — denoted as R-naught, R0 or Rt — was at 0.95, with Pahang the highest at 1.05, followed by Sarawak at 1.04, Terengganu at 1.02, Perak at 1.01, Johor, Kelantan, Perlis tied at 0.99 and Penang, Putrajaya tied at 0.96.

All but Sabah, Kedah, Melaka, Negri Sembilan, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor and Labuan surpassed that of the nationwide average.