COVID: 98.7 per cent of cases reported on Friday in categories one and two

PUTRAJAYA: New COVID-19 cases reported today, amounting to 15,368 or 98.7 per cent of the total number of new cases, are in categories one and two of the infection.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said 7,095 or 45.6 per cent of the cases reported today were in category two, with light symptoms while 8,273 or 53.1 per cent were in category one or had no symptoms.

"Only 1.3 per cent of the cases reported today are in categories three, four and five," he said at a media conference held at the Ministry of Health, here, today.

He disclosed that 102 cases or 0.6 per cent were in category three, with the patients having pneumonia, 74 cases or 0.5 per cent in category four, with pneumonia that required oxygen support while 29 cases or 0.2 per cent were in category five or critical condition.

He said also recorded today were 10,094 cases that have recovered from the viral infection as well as 144 fatalities, bringing the cumulative number to 7,718.

"There are now 147,386 active cases across the country with 939 of them being treated at the Intensive Care Units and out of this number, 456 patients require respiratory support," he added.

Dr Noor Hisham said an ongoing study by the Institute of Medical Research (IMR) and Community Health and Medical Institute of Universiti Malaysia Sarawak had identified 119 cases of new variants with all being variants of concern (VOC).

This has brought the cumulative number of cases infected with the VOC to 409 and those infected with the variants of interest (VOI) to 20.

To date, the VOC cases comprised 206 of Beta variant, Delta (189) and Alpha (14) while the VOI had 13 cases of the Theta variant, Kappa (four) and Eta (three), he said.

-- BERNAMA