Kuala Lumpur, Aug (IANS) Malaysia reported 17,786 new Covid-19 infections in the highest daily spike since the outbreak, bringing the national total to 1,113,272, the Health Ministry said on Saturday.

Health Ministry Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a press statement that nine of the new cases are imported and 17,777 are local transmissions.

Another 165 deaths have been reported, pushing the death toll to 9,024.

Some 11,718 more patients have been released after recovery, bringing the total cured and discharged to 914,639, or 82.2 per cent of all cases.

Of the remaining 189,609 active cases, 1,062 are being held in intensive care and 534 of those are in need of assisted breathing.

--IANS int/rs