KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 203 cases or 0.61 per cent of the 33,209 new COVID-19 cases recorded in the country yesterday are in categories three, four, and five.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that the remaining 33,006 cases are in categories one and two, hence bringing the cumulative total of cases in the country to 3,561,766.

"Of the 203 cases in categories three to five reported yesterday, 43 were individuals who were unvaccinated or have yet to complete vaccination while 117 were fully vaccinated but have not received the booster dose.

"Apart from that, 43 cases from categories three to five had received booster doses, 119 cases involved individuals aged 60 and above, 67 cases have comorbidities and one case involved a pregnant woman," he said in a statement today.

He said a total of 1,997 cases were admitted to hospitals yesterday, comprising 721 cases in categories three to five, and 1,276 cases in categories one and two.

Dr Noor Hisham also said that a total of 348 cases required treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with 211 cases requiring ventilator support and the utilisation rate stood at 24 per cent.

He said 26,352 recovered cases were reported yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of recoveries in the country to 3,223,650.

On the intensive care unit (ICU) bed usage, Dr Noor Hisham said that seven states recorded bed utilisation of more than 50 per cent, namely in Putrajaya (100 per cent), Perlis (73 per cent), Selangor (61 per cent), Kuala Lumpur (58 per cent), Johor (57 per cent), Perak (51 per cent) and Kelantan (50 per cent).

He also said that the country's infectivity rate (Rt) now stood at 1.02, with Sarawak recorded the highest at 1.41, followed by Perak (1.28), Kuala Lumpur (1.23) and Terengganu (1.18).

Meanwhile, he advised patients who are in categories 2B and above or have worsening symptoms to go to the COVID-19 Assessment Centre (CAC) or the nearest hospital for further checks without waiting for calls from the CAC.

-- BERNAMA