PUTRAJAYA (THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK) - Malaysia reported a record 20,596 new cases of Covid-19 on Thursday (Aug 5), breaching the 20,000 mark for the first time, the Health Ministry confirmed.

It was the second straight day a daily case record was hit, as the country logged more than 1.2 million infections since the start of the pandemic.

The death toll also breached the 10,000 mark, with 164 new deaths.

To date, the country has a total of 1,203,706 cases.

Selangor, with 8,549 new infections, remains the state with the highest number of cases.

Other states with more than 1,000 cases are Kuala Lumpur (2,163), Kedah (1,446), Johor (1,300), Sabah (1,062) and Penang (1,022).

On the vaccination front, a total of 494,214 doses of Covid-19 vaccines were given on Wednesday across the country, almost hitting the 500,000 mark.

From the total, 230,053 individuals received their first dose, while 264,161 were given their second dose, according to the vaccine supply special committee, citing data from the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force on Thursday.

Among the states and federal territories, Johor recorded the highest number of first doses administered on Wednesday at 37,542, followed by Sabah (33,404), Selangor (26,753) and Perak (25,747).

For the second dose, Selangor led the country with 83,204 shots, Kuala Lumpur with 45,473 shots and Kedah (18,342).

This brings the total cumulative doses of Covid-19 vaccines administered in Malaysia so far to 22,152,367 doses.

Malaysia is also facing a political crisis on top of the pandemic, as Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin faces doubts over his support among the country's lawmakers in Parliament.