In a statement today, he said this was expected to happen when 40% of the population in Malaysia was fully vaccinated.

Commenting on the latest surge in infections in the country, Noor Hisham said this was occurring alongside a rise in cases across the globe.

He added that Kuala Lumpur had the highest Covid-19 incidence rate per 100,000 residents in the last seven days, at 105.7.

This was followed by Selangor (101.5), Putrajaya (75.6), Negeri Sembilan (71.7), Melaka (53.8) and Kedah (51.8).

“The increasing number of daily cases indicates that the Covid-19 virus is already spreading within the community,” he said.

Noor Hisham noted that the number of clusters had also increased from 286 in the period from June 23 to July 6 to 401 between July 21 and Aug 1.

Within the same period, he said the number of workplace clusters had also increased from 180 to 213, while community clusters rose from 86 to 142.

“This increase follows more extensive screening of close contacts,” he said, adding that this was due to more awareness in the community to get tested.

“The increase in cases is also believed to have been due to the Delta variant. To date, a total of 199 cases of the Delta variant have been detected in the community.”

The health ministry reported a record high 20,889 cases and 160 deaths today.

There are now 221,396 active cases, with a record 1,096 patients being treated in intensive care and 545 requiring respiratory assistance.

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