Two more areas were listed in the COVID-19 red zone on Wednesday, the Ministry of Health's National Emergency Preparedness and Emergency Response Centre (CPRC) reported.

Sepang in Selangor and Kota Samarahan in Sarawak, formerly in the orange zone, were now categorized as red zones after recording more than 40 positive cases.

The addition of the two more areas has raised the total to 23 locations in the red zone so far.

According to statistics posted on the MOH's Twitter today, the latest location involved the district of Sepang, Selangor with 46 cases, and Kota Samarahan, Sarawak, with 42 cases as of noon yesterday (April 7).

Other areas categorized as red zones are Cheras, Kepong, Lembah Pantai and Titiwangsa (Kuala Lumpur); Petaling, Hulu Langat, Gombak and Klang (Selangor); Batu Pahat, Johor Bahru and Kluang (Johor), Seremban and Rembau (Negeri Sembilan), Federal Territory of Putrajaya; Hilir Perak and Kinta (Perak); Jasin (Malacca), Kota Bharu (Kelantan); Jerantut (Pahang); Tawau (Sabah); and Kuching (Sarawak).

Meanwhile, Lembah Pantai recorded the highest COVID-19 positive cases with 412, while Hulu Langat and Petaling registered 345 and 306 COVID-19 cases respectively.

The red zone is categorized for areas with a total of 41 cases, the orange zone (20-40 cases), the yellow zone (1-19 cases) and the green zone with no cases.

To date, Selangor has recorded the highest number of COVID-19 positive cases with 1,020 cases, while Perlis has maintained the lowest number (17).

Meanwhile, Malaysia posted a decline in the list of countries infected with the COVID-19 pandemic in the world, as the country ranked 30th yesterday with 3,963 positive cases and 63 deaths.

According to the statistics, the latest ranking showed a positive improvement from the 29th position on April 6th.

Among neighbouring countries, Philippines is ranked 34th (3,660 cases), Indonesia 38th (2,491 cases) and Thailand 41st (2,258 cases) while Singapore (1,309) is ranked 54th.

The United States with 368,449 cases and Spain (136,675 cases) were in the top two with the largest number of cases in the world, followed by Italy with 132,547 cases.

The total number of COVID-19 cases worldwide was reported at 1,351,011 cases, involving 285,517 recovery cases and 74,871 deaths.