COVID: 9,673 new cases Friday

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 9,673 new COVID-19 cases were recorded Friday (April 15) with 99.5 per cent of them in Categories 1 and 2, said Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

In a statement, he said of the total, 48 cases or 0.5 percent were in Categories 3, 4 and 5 (more severe categories), with 17 of them not vaccinated or not fully vaccinated, while 17 had received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine but not booster dose whereas 14 had received booster dose.

The new cases brought the COVID-19 case tally in the country to 4,372,697, while eight new clusters were reported yesterday, bringing the number of active clusters to 116.

According to Dr Noor Hisham, 370 cases were admitted to hospital yesterday with 224 of them in Categories 1 and 2 while 146 cases in Categories 3, 4 and 5.

Meanwhile, there were 14,267 recoveries yesterday, taking cumulative recovered cases in the country to 4,224,125.

As for the use of special health facilities for COVID-19 cases, Dr Noor Hisham said no state recorded ICU bed occupancy rate exceeding 50 per cent yesterday.

For non-ICU bed utilisation, only Putrajaya showed occupancy of more than 50 per cent, at 51 per cent, while for COVID-19 Low Risk Quarantine and Treatment Centres (PKRC), Perak recorded more than 50 per cent, at 87 per cent.

Dr Noor Hisham added that Malaysia's COVID-19 infectivity rate (Rt value) yesterday stood at 0.82 with Selangor still recording the highest rate of 0.89.

-- BERNAMA