KUALA LUMPUR • Malaysia yesterday logged 1,228 new Covid-19 cases in the past 24 hours, a record high.

The previous record high of 871 cases was reported last Sunday.

Yesterday's figure meant that Malaysia has recorded at least 700 cases daily for eight days in a row, compared with mostly below 200 a day during the first nine months from January, when Covid-19 infections began to be tracked closely in the country.

The Health Ministry said on Twitter that 889 of the 1,228 cases, or 72.3 per cent, were from Sabah.

The East Malaysian state is the epicentre of the country's coronavirus pandemic in the past few weeks, with health officials conducting more tests on the population that exposed the higher number of cases.

Malaysia from late last month started seeing an exponential surge in cases, which has been mostly blamed on the two weeks of campaigning ahead of the Sept 26 Sabah state polls.

Some of the thousands of campaigners from all over the country brought the disease with them when they returned to their home towns.

There were outbreaks of Covid-19 cases in Sabah detention centres for illegal migrants around the same time as the election campaigning period.

Malaysia yesterday also reported seven new fatalities, bringing the death toll to 221.