COVID-19: Number of new cases declining, 17,672 cases today - Health DG

Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said yesterday, Malaysia recorded 19,807 new cases and on Saturday, 22,262 cases.

Sharing the latest data on COVID-19 infections via his Facebook page, Dr Noor Hisham said the additional cases today brought the cumulative number of cases in the country to 1,572,765.

He said although Selangor was still recording the highest number of cases, it showed a decline, with 4,316 new cases reported in the last 24 hours compared to over 5,000 earlier.

States recording more than 1,000 cases were Sabah (2,474), Kedah (1,602), Sarawak (1,538), Penang (1,451), Johor (1,367) and Kelantan (1,176).

Perak recorded 952 cases, Kuala Lumpur (891), Pahang (506), Negeri Sembilan (478), Terengganu (470), Melaka (363), Perlis (57), Putrajaya (24) and Labuan (seven)

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham, through a statement today, said 1,040 patients are being treated in the intensive care units (ICU), with 502 of them requiring ventilators.

He also said that there were 19,053 recoveries, taking the cumulative number of recovered cases to 1,297,723, while active cases currently stood at 260,700.

He added that of the 17,672 new cases today, 436 of them or 2.5 per cent were in categories three, four and five while 17,236 cases were in categories one and two.

In total, 14,337 cases, or 81.13 per cent, of the cases reported involved those either without vaccination or had incomplete vaccination.

On new death cases, he said 174 fatalities were reported involving 158 Malaysians and 16 foreigners, with 21 cases classified as 'brought-in-dead' (BID).

On the 30 new clusters detected by the Ministry of Health, Dr Noor Hisham said 18 of them involved workplaces, communities (10 clusters) and high-risk group (two).

Based on the latest data, the country's average COVID-19 infectivity rate or R-Naught (Rt) value yesterday was 1.03, with Sarawak recording the highest Rt value of 1.29, followed by Perlis (1.24) and Sabah (1.21).

All the states recorded Rt values exceeding 1.0 except for Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Labuan, and Negeri Sembilan.