KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 98.3 per cent or 7,817 out of 7,950 new COVID-19 cases reported as of noon today were in category one (asymptomatic) and category two (mild symptoms).

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the remaining 133 cases or 1.7 per cent, were in categories three, four, and five.

Category three refers to patients with pneumonia, category four as requiring oxygen and category five as needing ventilator support.

"Of the total new cases, 7,921 cases were local transmissions involving 7,275 citizens and 646 foreigners while 29 cases were imported cases involving 21 citizens and eight non-citizens," he said in a statement today.

He said 10,832 patients had recovered today, bringing the cumulative number of recoveries in the country to 2,227,889.

Dr Noor Hisham said 725 cases were being treated at the intensive care unit (ICU) with 710 confirmed positive for COVID-19 while another 15 more were suspected or probable cases and those under investigation.

He said a total of 380 cases requiring respiratory aid comprising 304 patients who tested positive for COVID-19 while 76 were suspected or probable cases and cases under investigation.

He said 13 new clusters were detected overnight, with six clusters involving the workplace, three in the community, one cluster each involving those under the high-risk group and other education and private educational institutions registered under the Ministry of Education.

Dr Noor Hisham said the COVID-19 infectivity rate or R-naught (RT) in Malaysia yesterday was at 0.88 with Putrajaya recording the highest at 1.09.

Data on fatalities and other data on the current COVID-19 situation in Malaysia will be uploaded on the GitHub site and the COVIDNOW website via https://covidnow.moh.gov.my.

-- BERNAMA