CORONAVIRUS | After recording three digits for two consecutive days, the number of new Covid-19 cases has dropped to 15, revealed Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

This is due to the majority of cases in the immigration detention centres having been detected and isolated.

Noor Hisham said of the 15 new cases, six were imported involving Malaysians returning from abroad. Nine were local transmissions, comprising five Malaysians and four foreigners.

"After a spike in the last few days, the number of cases has returned to two digits.

"The previous increase was due to detection in a number of immigration detention depots and a number of active clusters involving foreigners," he told a press conference in Putrajaya this evening.

With the latest figures, the total number of Covid-19 cases in Malaysia stands at 7,619.

Noor Hisham also reported 42 new recoveries, putting the total number of people who have recovered at 6,083 or 79.8 percent of the total cases.

No new death was reported. The death toll remains at 115 whereas a total of 1,421 people are still undergoing treatment.

Among the patients under treatment, eight are in intensive care units (ICU) with four needing ventilators to breathe.

A total of 21,437 tests for Covid-19 were conducted yesterday.

The total of nine local transmissions recorded in the last 24 hours until noon is also the first time local transmissions went into the single-digit territory since the start of the movement control order.

Of the nine local transmissions, only one was from an immigration detention depot, specifically the one at Bukit Jalil.

The other infections were at the Dang Wangi district police headquarters (1), a Setia Alam construction site (2) and a Lembah Pantai construction site (1).

The source of infection of another three from Sarawak and one from Sabah are under investigation. They are Malaysians.

To date, the Bukit Jalil immigration detention depot has recorded 282 Covid-19 cases while the ones at Semenyih and Sepang recorded 66 and 36 cases respectively.

All infections at the detention centres involve foreigners except for one at the Semenyih centre which involves an immigration officer. 

A total of 4,752 people at the three immigration centres, including detainees and staff, have been tested. Only 13 more are still pending results.

Meanwhile, Noor Hisham urged the public to remain vigilant as the pandemic does not appear to be subsiding globally.

"The Health Ministry is worried that there could be an increase in Covid-19 cases from people visiting each other, travelling inter-state and mixing around during this Hari Raya celebration.

He noted that police had since May 16 detected 18,303 vehicles trying to travel interstate despite a ban.

He urged the public to be socially responsible and abide by the movement control order on top of practising social distancing and good hygiene.