KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia recorded its highest ever Covid-19 fatalities with 59 deaths as of noon today, since the pandemic struck the nation last year.
The figure came just two days after Malaysia registered its previous-highest fatalities at 47 deaths from the coronavirus on Tuesday.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the cumulative death toll nationwide from Covid-19 now stood at 2,099 cases.
"Currently, there are 587 Covid-19 patients receiving treatment at Intensive Care Units (ICU) nationwide, with 330 on respiratory support," he said in a statement.
On the country's death toll, Dr Noor Hisham said it comprised all Malaysians except for a sole foreigner identified as a 50-year-old man who had no pre-existing medical condition.
Of the new deaths, 14 cases were reported in Johor, 10 in Selangor followed by Kuala Lumpur (8) and Kelantan (6).
"There were four fatalities recorded in Negri Sembilan and Melaka respectively and three fatalities each registered in Kedah, Perak and Terengganu.
"Sarawak recorded two fatalities while Sabah and Penang each registered one Covid-19 death each," he said.
Aged between 37 and 91, most of the deceased had a medical history of diabetes, high blood pressure, heart, and chronic kidney diseases among others.
Only 11 of the deceased including the foreigner had no chronic ailments.
"The oldest patient, a 91-year-old local man who had a medical history of chronic heart disease and high blood pressure, died at the Sarawak General Hospital in Kuching, Sarawak.
"The youngest patient, a 37-year-old local man who had obesity, died in Johor Baru at the Sultan Ismail Hospital," he said.
Dr Noor Hisham said the country today also recorded its highest Covid-19 daily cases with 6,806 new infections as of noon.
Out of the total, 6,804 are local transmission cases and two imported.
"There are 6,122 locals and 682 foreigners recorded under the local transmission cases.
"The country now has 50,171 Covid-19 active cases," he revealed.
Dr Noor Hisham said Selangor recorded the highest number of new infections at 2,277 cases, Kuala Lumpur recorded the second-highest number of cases today at 655 followed by Johor (615), Sarawak (608) and Kelantan (426)
Other states which had three figure daily cases as of noon today are, Kedah (417), Penang (362), Negri Sembilan (291), Perak (248), Sabah (245), Terengganu (233), Melaka (212) and Pahang (157).
Putrajaya and Labuan recorded two-digit cases today at 35 and 17 cases respectively while Perlis saw eight new infections as of noon.
Meanwhile, the number of Covid-19 patients who recovered and been discharged from hospitals as of noon today stood at 3,916 bringing the total number of recoveries from the coronavirus to 440,032 (89.38 per cent).