COVID: 20,579 new cases today takes total to 1,706,089

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a tweet said this brought the cumulative number of cases in the country to 1,706,089.

He said Selangor still had the highest number of cases with 4,591, followed by Sabah (2,578), Sarawak (2,522), Johor (1,852), Kedah (1,755) and Penang (1,378).

"A total of 1,316 cases were recorded in Kelantan, Perak (1,208), Pahang (839), Terengganu (789), Kuala Lumpur (680), Melaka (636) Negeri Sembilan (329), Perlis (56), Putrajaya (48) and Labuan (two), "he added.

Dr Noor Hisham in his statement today said from the 20,579 new cases, 455 cases or 2.2 per cent were in categories three, four and five while the remaining 20,124 cases comprised cases in categories one and two.

On the overall, 15,651 cases or 76.1 per cent reported have no or incomplete vaccination.

He said there were 20,845 recovery cases today bringing the cumulative total recoveries to 1,422,005 while the active cases now totaled 267,997.

Dr Noor Hisham also said 1,009 patients were being treated at intensive care units (ICU) with 477 of requiring respiratory assistance.

He also said there were 285 new deaths reported involving 240 locals and 45 foreigners while 51 cases were brought in dead (BID).

On the 26 new clusters detected, Dr Noor Hisham said 20 of them involved work places, five in the community and one at an education premises.

Based on the latest data, the COVID-19 infectivity rate or R-Naught (Rt) in Malaysia yesterday was 1.01 and states registering the highest Rt were Sarawak with Rt of 1.25, followed by Perlis (1.21), and Sabah (1.16).

All other states recorded Rt above 1.0 except Pahang, Melaka, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Labuan and Negeri Sembilan.