PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia recorded 710 new Covid-19 infections on Friday (Oct 23), a slight reduction from the previous day which saw more than 800 cases, says the Health Ministry.
There is only one imported case and the rest are local transmissions.
In a statement, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah also announced 10 new fatalities, taking the death toll to 214.
This represents the highest number of fatalities recorded in Malaysia in a single day.
The country also discharged 467 patients on Friday, which means the total number of Covid-19 recoveries is 15,884.
Active cases in the country have gone up to 8,416.
In total, Malaysia has recorded 24,514 Covid-19 cases since the outbreak began in January.
Currently, 90 people are being treated at intensive care units, with 28 of them requiring ventilator support.
The majority of the cases continued to come from Sabah, where 528 cases (74.4%) were reported in the state alone.
Dr Noor Hisham said the high numbers in Sabah is attributed to the Health Ministry's persistence in its active case detection work in the state.
"Mobilisation of our health workers have boosted our Covid-19 screening and medical treatment efforts on the ground.
"The logistical aspects and the delivery of samples have also improved, helping us to conduct RT-PCR tests at a faster speed," said Dr Noor Hisham in a statement on Thursday (Oct 23).
Selangor still has the second highest number of cases, although its 62 cases on Friday is an improvement from the triple-digit cases in previous days.
Kedah only recorded one case, with the sole infection coming from the Tembok cluster.
Other states that recorded new cases are Penang (39 cases), Negri Sembilan (37), Labuan (19), Kuala Lumpur (10), Perak (four), Johor (four), Terengganu (two), Sarawak (two) and Pahang (one).
There is one new import case involving a non-Malaysian arriving from Nepal.
Of the 10 deaths, Dr Noor Hisham said eight were in Sabah with another two in Kedah and Labuan.
The youngest victim was a 33-year-old who died at the Sabah Women and Children Hospital in Likas.
The man has a history of kidney disease.
The other death cases involve six men and three women aged 54 to 77.
