COVID: New cases increase slightly to 4,362 - Health D-G

KUALA LUMPUR: New COVID-19 cases reported in the country went slightly up to 4,362 cases today, compared to 4,262 yesterday, taking the cumulative total to 2,711,764 now.

Health director-general, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said of the new cases reported today, 4,334 were local transmissions while 28 more cases were imported.

"89 cases or two per cent are in categories three, four and five while 4,273 cases or 98 per cent involve categories one and two," he said in a statement today.

Categories one and two refer to COVID-19 patients with no or mild symptoms while categories three, four and five are patients with lung infections, requiring oxygen aid and respiratory assistance.

Dr Noor Hisham said there were 5,098 recovery cases today bringing the total recoveries to 2,625,245 while 400 cases were being treated at intensive care units (ICU) with 198 of them on ventilators.

He said 12 new clusters were detected today and the total active clusters are 257 apart from the Rt (infectivity rate) in Malaysia as of yesterday down to 0.90.

He added that the detailed Rt as of Dec 16 according to states showed Negeri Sembilan with the highest reading at 1.02, followed by Pahang and Penang at 1.00 respectively.

-- BERNAMA