COVID: 33.7 pct drop in new cases last week - Health DG

KUALA LUMPUR: New COVID-19 cases in the country dropped by 33.7 per cent to 7,249 cases in the 50th Epidemiological Week (ME 50/2022) from Dec 11 to 17, compared to 10,937 cases the previous week.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement today that local cases dropped by 33.8 per cent from 10,923 to 7,232 cases in ME50/2022 while imported cases rose by 21.4 per cent from 14 to 17 cases.

He said the number of recoveries during the same week was also lower by 30.3 per cent from 14,816 to 10,330 cases while death cases went up by 9.3 per cent from 43 to 47 cases.

According to him, cumulatively there were 5,017,016 new cases of COVID-19 recorded from ME 4/2020 which was on Jan 25, 2020 to Dec 17, 2022, while recoveries logged for the same period were 4,964,534 cases with 36,800 deaths.

Dr Noor Hisham also informed that the cumulative number of clusters was 7,162 with 21 clusters still active.

On admissions to hospitals and Low-Risk COVID-19 Treatment Centres for every 100,000 people, Dr Noor Hisham said overall, it dropped by 21.6 per cent.

He said admissions to public hospitals for category one (asymptomatic) and category two (with symptoms) saw a decline of 28.6 per cent while for category three (with lung infection), four (requiring oxygen aid) and five (on ventilator) dropped by 31 per cent.

-- BERNAMA