PUTRAJAYA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Malaysia recorded 9,180 Covid-19 cases on Friday (July 9), a record for daily infections.

The highest figure previously was 9,020 cases on May 29.

Selangor recorded an all-time high of 4,400 new cases and Kuala Lumpur logged 1,271 new infections.

The country's cumulative total number of cases is now 817,838.

Malaysia's health director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah said the Covid-19 infectivity rate remains above 1.0 for two-thirds of the country.

An infectivity rate of above 1.0 means that more people will get infected and a value below 1.0 means the number of cases will go down.

Based on the number of daily cases, he said the infectivity rate for the country is expected to reach 1.09, with only four states recording below 1.0.

Putrajaya recorded the highest infectivity rate value at 1.28.

"States expected to record infectivity rate above 1.0 are Perak (1.18), Kuala Lumpur (1.16), Selangor (1.14), Pahang (1.10), Kedah (1.08), Sabah and Penang (1.07), Melaka (1.06), Terengganu (1.04) as well as Negri Sembilan (1.02)," he said.

"States expected to record infectivity rate below one are Johor (0.96), Kelantan (0.90), Labuan and Sarawak (0.86)."

The latest spikes in infection come despite Malaysia being in a lockdown since the start of June, raising questions about the country's enforcement of safety measures.

The government had enforced a total lockdown from June 1 for two weeks. The lockdown, or phase one of the National Recovery Plan, was later extended indefinitely, and continued in many states in Malaysia as infections remain high.