COVID: Daily cases down to below 23,000 on Sunday - Health DG

New daily COVID-19 cases recorded Sunday (March 13) dropped to 22,535 cases as compared to 26,250 on Saturday, said Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said of the 22,535 cases recorded yesterday, 8,637 cases or 38.33 per cent were in category one, 13,713 cases or 60.85 per cent in category two while for categories three, four and five there were 185 cases or 0.82 per cent.

In a statement today on daily developments on the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, he said 1,757 cases were hospitalised with 721 or 41 per cent of them being in categories three, four and five while 1,036 cases (59 per cent) were category one and two patients.

As for the country's infectivity rate (Rt) yesterday, Dr Noor Hisham said it also dropped to 0.97 from 0.99 on Saturday.

On COVID-19 bed occupancy for critical cases or in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Ministry of Health hospitals, he stated that four states and two federal territories recorded more than 50 per cent usage yesterday, namely Putrajaya at 100 per cent, Kelantan (75 per cent), Johor and Kuala Lumpur (73 per cent each), Selangor (58 per cent) and Perlis (55 per cent).

However, he said there was an increase in COVID-19 patients who needed ventilator support, involving 222 patients or 25 per cent compared to 211 patients or 24 per cent on Saturday.

-- BERNAMA