KUALA LUMPUR: The number of new COVID-19 cases in Malaysia dropped to 14,692 yesterday, with 99.46 per cent in categories one and two, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

This brings the cumulative figure to 4,234,087 cases since the outbreak about two years ago.

He said 8,557 cases or 58.24 per cent of the latest infections are in category one and 6,056 cases or 41.22 per cent are in category two.

"There are 27 cases in category three, 19 in category four and 33 in category five," he said in a statement today. Categories one and two are mild cases while category five is the most severe.

He said 261 cases were still receiving treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), with 153 cases requiring ventilators.


A total of 663 cases were admitted to hospital yesterday, with 285 cases from categories three to five and the rest from categories one and two, he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said 20,383 recoveries were reported yesterday, bringing the cumulative figure for recovered cases to 3,997,786.

On the use of dedicated health facilities for COVID-19 cases, he said ICU bed occupancy in Kuala Lumpur was 67 per cent while Selangor recorded 50 per cent usage yesterday.

"No states recorded usage of more than 50 per cent for beds at Low-Risk COVID-19 Quarantine and Treatment Centres (PKRC).

"The number of COVID-19 patients requiring ventilators drops to 153, giving a 17 per cent usage of ventilators," he added.


The COVID-19 infectivity rate or Rt value in the country was 0.85, with Selangor still registering the highest at 1.06, while Kelantan and Sabah have the lowest rate at 0.68.

He said two new clusters were detected yesterday, bringing the number of active clusters to 190.

-- BERNAMA