98.4 per cent of new COVID-19 cases today in categories 1 and 2 - Health DG

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said 305 cases or 1.6 per cent of the total number of new daily COVID-19 cases were patients from categories 3, 4 and 5.

Category 3 is classified as those with pneumonia and requiring hospital treatment and observation, category 4 (pneumonia and requiring oxygen) and category 5 (critical and requiring respiratory assistance).

"Overall, a total of 16,638 cases (84.75 per cent) of the total number of cases reported today either had no COVID-19 vaccine jabs or did not complete their COVID-19 vaccination.

"Get vaccinated to reduce the risk of serious infection, thus, reducing COVID-19 infections in the country, especially cases in categories three to five," he said in a statement.

Dr Noor Hisham said there were 16,468 recoveries today while 293 fatalities were recorded, with 44 of them being brought-in-dead cases.

The fatalities were recorded in Selangor (90 cases); Kuala Lumpur (47), Johor (42), Pahang (21), Melaka and Perak (19 each), Sabah (15), Negeri Sembilan and Kedah (nine each), Penang (eight), Kelantan (seven), Terengganu (five) and Sarawak (two).

He said the number of active COVID-19 cases nationwide stood at 252,147, with 1,054 patients being treated in the intensive care unit (ICU) and 525 of them requiring respiratory assistance.

He said ongoing studies by the Institute for Medical Research (IMR) had identified a total of 43 cases of new variants of SARS-CoV-2, all of which were variants of concern (VOC), namely the Delta variant.

This brings the cumulative total number of cases infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus, which is categorised as VOC and variants of interest (VOI), to 710, with 690 of them being VOCs and 20 others being VOIs.

Dr Noor Hisham also said that 39 new clusters were detected today, with 23 of them linked to workplaces, followed by community (13), detention centre (two) and high-risk group (one).

Meanwhile, he added that the COVID-19 infectivity rate or R-naught (Rt) in Malaysia yesterday was 1.05, with Perlis being the state having the highest Rt rate of 1.25, followed by Sarawak (1.23) and Kelantan (1.19).