KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 18 — Malaysia today recorded 22,242 new cases of Covid-19, the highest number since the pandemic hit the country last year.
Sharing the latest data on the viral infection via his Twitter account, Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this new development has brought the cumulative number of cases in the country to 1,466,512.
He said Selangor continued to record the highest number of cases among the states, with 6,858 followed by Sabah (2,413), Penang (1,867), Kedah (1,852), Kuala Lumpur (1,587) and Johor (1,477).
He added that Sarawak recorded 1,403 cases, Kelantan (1,351), Perak (1,036), Pahang (675), Melaka (579), Negeri Sembilan (577), Terengganu (487), Perlis (50), Putrajaya (25), and Labuan (5).
Yesterday, Malaysia reported 19,631 Covid-19 new cases.
Dr Noor Hisham, in a statement today, said out of 22,242 cases, 430 cases (1.9 per cent) were from categories 3, 4 and 5 while the remaining 21,812 cases (98.1 per cent) were from categories 1 and 2.
He said in total, 18,631 cases (83.8 per cent) of the total cases reported had no or incomplete Covid-19 vaccination.
Apart from that, he said 19,680 recovered cases were recorded, making the cumulative total now 1,198,726 cases, while active cases were 254,484.
A total of 225 new deaths were reported, involving 198 Malaysians and 27 foreigners; 35 deaths were brought-in-dead (BID) cases involving 27 Malaysians and eight foreigners.
Meanwhile, a total of 1,060 cases were being treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), with 540 of them requiring respiratory assistance.
Of the 49 new clusters detected, Dr Noor Hisham said that 30 of them were workplace clusters, 13 community clusters, five high-risk group clusters and one detention centre cluster.
He said the COVID-19 infectivity rate or R-nought (Rt) in Malaysia yesterday was 1.04, with all states recording Rt above 1.0 except Labuan (0), Kuala Lumpur (0.98), Putrajaya (0.91) and Negeri Sembilan (0.95).
Perlis recorded the highest Rt rate of 1.29, followed by Sarawak (1.19), Sabah (1.17), Kelantan (1.16), Penang (1.15), Kedah (1.11), Perak (1.09), Johor, Melaka and Terengganu (1.07), Pahang (1.06) and Selangor (1.01).
— Bernama
