Malaysia's new COVID-19 cases have breached the 7,000 mark and travels during Ramadan and Hari Raya is to blame, Health Minister Dr Adham Baba said.

In a press conference, Adham said that 40 COVID-19 clusters related to religious activities had been reported in the past week alone.

Of this, 19 were detected in Johor, 13 in Selangor, and the remaining eight in Melaka, Negeri Sembilan and Kelantan.

"These religious activity clusters happened throughout the fasting month until Raya, and the increase in these clusters depended on the movement and mobility of the public.

"If we reduce our mobility, then we can lower the infectivity rate, reduce transmissions and curb COVID-19," Free Malaysia Today (FMT) quoted Adham saying.

Bernama had earlier reported that 'balik kampung' trips to Terengganu by 35 individuals from COVID-19 red zones during Hari Raya had spawned 90 cases in the state.

According to Adham further, 333 deaths were reported in the past week - averaging 48 deaths a day. This is an increase of 59.3 percent from the week before. Yesterday, a record high of 61 deaths were reported.

As of noon today, a record high of 7,289 new COVID-19 cases were reported. Selangor again led the list with 2,642 cases.

So far, there have been a total of 525,889 confirmed COVID-19 cases in the country.

The global coronavirus infection and death tally has surpassed 168 million, and 3.4 million, respectively.

Source: FMT
Photo source: Astro Awani