COVID-19: New cases dip below 20,000 Monday - Health DG

The country had recorded more than 20,000 COVID-19 cases from Aug 24 to Aug 29, with the highest figure during that period, at 24,599 cases, recorded on Aug 26.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, in a post on Twitter, said cumulative COVID-19 cases in Malaysia now stood at 1.72 million.

"Selangor remains the state with the highest number of infections with 3,567 cases, followed by Sabah (2,310), Johor (2,265), Kedah (2,084) and Sarawak (2,028)," he said.

Three states reported more than 1,000 new cases, namely Penang (1,780), Kelantan (1,308) and Perak (1,144) while Pahang recorded 788 cases, followed by Kuala Lumpur (672), Terengganu (544), Melaka (395) and Negeri Sembilan (269).

Perlis reported 71 cases, Putrajaya (41) and Labuan (2).

Dr Noor Hisham, in a statement today, said that of the 19,268 new infections, 399 cases or 2.1 per cent were in categories 3, 4 and 5 while the remaining 18,869 cases were in categories 1 and 2.

Overall, 14,664 cases (76.1 per cent) of the total cases reported today were those who were not or only partially vaccinated.

He said there were 21,257 recoveries recorded, bringing the total number of recovered cases to 1,443,262, adding that there are now 265,713 active cases in the country.

He also said that 1,033 patients are being treated in the intensive care unit (ICU), with 476 of them requiring respiratory assistance.

He said there were 295 fatalities reported today involving 261 Malaysians and 34 foreigners, with 53 being brought-in-dead (BID) cases.

On the 36 new clusters detected, Dr Noor Hisham said 17 of them involved workplaces, 14 in the community, two linked to the high-risk group, one each linked to other education and higher education as well as one in the detention centre.

Based on the latest data, the COVID-19 infectivity rate or R-Naught (Rt) in Malaysia yesterday was 1.01, with states recording the highest Rt being Sarawak at 1.24, followed by Perlis (1.20) and Sabah (1.14).

All other states recorded Rt above 1.0 except Pahang, Melaka, Selangor, Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur, Negeri Sembilan and Labuan.