COVID-19: New cases drop to 19,378 Friday - Health DG

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, through his postings on Facebook and Twitter, said the cumulative number of cases had now reached 1,805,382.

Selangor continued to chalk up the highest number of daily cases at 3,613, followed by Sarawak (2,464), Sabah (2,404), Johor (2,331), Penang (1,726), Kedah (1,470), Perak (1,389) and Kelantan (1,356).

Meanwhile, Kuala Lumpur recorded 740 cases, Pahang (559), Terengganu (532), Melaka (399) and Negeri Sembilan (270).

Three states with less than 100 cases are Perlis (80), Putrajaya (41) and Labuan (four).

Dr Noor Hisham, in a statement, said that of the new cases reported today, 332 cases of 1.7 per cent were in categories three, four and five while 19,046 cases 98.3 per cent were in categories one and two.

"In total, 8,847 cases of 45.7 per cent of the total cases reported today have no history of vaccination, 4,638 cases of 23.9 per cent have received at least one dose of the vaccine while 5,893 cases of 30.4 per cent have been fully vaccinated," he said.

He said there were currently 259,189 active cases in the country, with 1,388 patients being treated in the intensive care unit (ICU).

Of the patients in the ICU, 975 were confirmed COVID-19 positive while another 413 were still under investigation.

Dr Noor Hishm said that 762 cases required respiratory assistance, of which 463 were confirmed COVID-19 positive, while the remaining 299 were still under investigation.

According to Dr Noor Hisham, 22,399 recoveries were recorded today, while 330 fatalities were reported, with 93 cases being brought-in-dead (BID), taking the death toll to 17,521.

He said 34 new clusters were recorded today, with 20 being workplace clusters, community clusters (eight), high-risk group clusters (four), higher education and religious clusters (one each), taking the total number of clusters to 1,476 at present.

Meanwhile, he said the overall COVID-19 infectivity rate or R-naught (Rt) for two consecutive days recorded readings of less than 1.0 and hoped that it would continue to drop.

"This (RT value) is a positive sign because although more economic and social sectors have been opened lately, the situation seems to be under control and shows that it is improving slowly.

"The COVI-19 situation in the country will hopefully continue to improve in line with the increase in vaccination rates as well as compliance with standard operating procedures (SOP) and new norm," he said.

Other than that, Dr Noor Hisham said the usage capacity of ICU beds in COVID-19 hospitals in Kedah was at 128 per cent, Sabah (110 per cent), Perak (106 per cent), Penang (101 per cent) ad Perlis (100 per cent), while for other states it was at below 100 per cent as of 5 pm yesterday.

According to him, the use of ICU beds nationwide as of yesterday was 89 per cent.