COVID: 12,456 recovery cases today, surpass 8,084 new cases - Health DG

He said, this brings the cumulative number of recoveries in the country to 2,240,345.

Dr Noor Hisham said out of 8,084 new cases, 8,063 were local infections while another 21 were imported cases.

"A total of 98.4 per cent or 7,951 of the total new cases today involved individuals in categories one and two, which are asymptomatic or with mild symptoms, while 1.6 per cent or 133 cases are in categories three, four, and five," he said in a statement.

Dr Noor Hisham added a total of 702 cases were treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with 683 cases involving the pandemic and another 19 suspected, probable and under investigation.

Of the cases, 367 required respiratory assistance with 286 cases involving COVID-19 as well as 81 others suspected, probable and under investigation.

In addition, 17 new clusters were identified involving nine work place clusters, four community clusters, three high-risk group clusters and one cluster at a private educational institution registered under the Ministry of Education.

In the meantime, Dr Noor Hisham said in preparation for the endemic phase, the Ministry of Health (MOH) was upgrading the services of the COVID-19 Assessment Centre (CAC) and among the initiatives implemented was the improvement of COVID-19 case assessment in primary health facilities.

He said health clinics would conduct confirmation tests for suspected individuals and persons with symptoms could go to nearby health clinics to undergo walk-in examinations and health assessments or appointments to reduce congestion, waiting time and risk of infection.

"Besides that, the initiative involves monitoring COVID-19 cases by COVID-19 Assessment Centre (CAC) of private general medical practitioners (CAC GPs) with the 1,149 CAC GPs gazetted throughout Malaysia with 81 of them active in providing case monitoring services for those undergoing isolation at home," he said.

MOH is also implementing the establishment of Private CAC (CACS) by private medical practitioners by setting guidelines for those who want to provide the service and the applicant must be a certificate holder from a private medical clinic registered under the Private Healthcare Facilities and Services Act 1998 (Act 586).

The applicant must also be gazetted as an Authorised Officer under Section 3, Act 342 for the purpose of issuing surveillance and care orders at home as well as the use of surveillance devices.

In addition to the virtual expansion of CAC for asymptomatic positive individuals and not from high-risk groups, MOH also implemented Automated Voice Recording (Robocall) services with individuals who reported symptoms will receive SMS and Robocall calls for them to come to health facilities for further examination.