COVID: 22,948 new cases, highest so far in country

KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia today recorded 22,948 new cases of COVID-19, the highest in a day since the pandemic hit the country.

Sharing the latest data on the viral infection via his Twitter account, Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the latest development has brought the cumulative number of cases to 1,489,460.

He said Selangor continued to record the highest number of cases among the states with 7,175, followed by Sabah (2,583), Kedah (2,137), Penang (1,655), Johor (1,526) and Kuala Lumpur (1,439).

Kelantan recorded 1,271 cases, Perak (1,229), Sarawak (1,206), Melaka (737), Pahang (736), Terengganu (621), Negeri Sembilan (556), Perlis (42), Putrajaya (26) and Labuan (9).

Yesterday, Malaysia recorded 22,242 new cases.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham, in a statement today, said out of 22,948 cases, 457 cases (2 per cent) were from categories 3, 4 and 5 while the remaining 22,491 cases (98 per cent) were from categories 1 and 2.

He said in total, 17,981 (78.4 per cent) of the total cases reported had no or incomplete COVID-19 vaccination.

Apart from that, he said 21,720 recovered cases were recorded, making the cumulative total now 1,220,446, cases, while active cases were 255,534.

A total of 178 new deaths were reported, involving 155 Malaysians and 23 foreigners; 35 deaths were brought-in-dead (BID) cases involving 26 Malaysians and nine foreigners.

Meanwhile, he said, a total of 1,060 cases were being treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), with 528 of them requiring respiratory assistance.

Of the 42 new clusters detected, Dr Noor Hisham said that 23 of them were workplace clusters, 15 community clusters, two detention centre clusters and one high-risk group cluster and religious ceremony cluster respectively.

He said the COVID-19 infectivity rate or R-naught (Rt) in Malaysia yesterday was 1.04, with all states recording Rt above 1.0 except Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Labuan, and Negeri Sembilan.

Perlis recorded the highest Rt rate of 1.33, followed by Sarawak (1.21), Sabah (1.19), Penang (1.18), Kelantan (1.14), Kedah (1.10), Perak (1.10), Johor (1.07), Pahang (1.06), Melaka (1.06), and Terengganu (1.05).

-- BERNAMA