Malaysia's new COVID-19 cases remain below 20,000 mark - Health DG

KUALA LUMPUR: The country continues to record new COVID-19 cases below the 20,000-mark for five consecutive days, with a slight increase when 17,476 cases were reported yesterday compared with 15,941 cases on Thursday.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the new development brought the cumulative number of new cases in the country to 4,219,395.

He said out of the 17,479 new cases recorded yesterday, 9,813 cases (56.15 per cent) were in category one, 7,552 cases (43.22 per cent) were in category two and 37 cases (0.21 per cent) were in categories three, four and five, respectively.

"Of the 111 cases in categories three to five, 22 cases have not been vaccinated or have not been fully vaccinated; 45 cases have received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine but yet to receive a booster dose and 44 cases have received a booster dose," he said in a statement today.

Dr Noor Hisham said of the total new cases yesterday, 263 cases required treatment at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) while 162 cases required respiratory assistance.

According to him, a total of 897 cases were admitted to the hospital yesterday, with 429 cases from categories three, four and five and 468 cases from categories one and two.

Meanwhile, he said 17,321 COVID-19 recovered cases were reported yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of recoveries to 3,977,403.

On the use of specialised health facilities for COVID-19 cases, he said only Kuala Lumpur recorded more than 50 per cent of ICU bed use as of yesterday with 67 per cent while no other states recorded more than 50 per cent usage of beds at COVID-19 Quarantine and Low-risk Treatment Centre (PKRC).

"The number of COVID-19 patients who needed breathing assistance has dropped to 162 cases with the percentage of use of the ventilators being 18 per cent," he said.

The COVID-19 infectivity rate was at 0.87 with Selangor still recording the highest rate of 1.07 and Sabah with the lowest rate at 0.65.

Six new clusters were identified bringing the total number of active clusters to 194.

-- BERNAMA