KUALA LUMPUR: New COVID-19 cases today dropped to 3,490 compared to 4,626 recorded yesterday, bringing the cumulative total to 2,691,639 cases, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said from the total daily cases, 69 cases or two per cent were patients in categories three, four and five meanwhile 3,421 cases (98 per cent) were in categories one and two.

In a statement on the COVID-19 current situation today, Dr Noor Hisham said of the 3,490 cases, 3,476 were local transmissions and 14 were imported cases.

He said a total of 407 patients are being treated in intensive care units (ICU) while 216 cases require respiratory assistance.

Meanwhile, on the number of recoveries, Dr Noor Hisham said 5,399 cases were reported, taking the overall cases of recoveries from the virus to 2,601,908.

Apart from that, he said two new clusters were identified and there is a total of 243 active clusters in the country now.

The infectivity rate (Rt) in the country now is 0.97 as of yesterday, he added.

-- BERNAMA