KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 21 — New Covid-19 cases in Malaysia dropped to 22,262 today from yesterday’s record high of 23,564, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
In a Twitter post, he said this brings the cumulative figure for positive cases in the country to 1,535,286.
He said Selangor again recorded the most infections among states in the last 24-hour period with 7,011, followed by Sabah (2,651), Sarawak (1,964), Kedah (1,880), Johor (1,558), Penang (1,459) and Kuala Lumpur (1,220).
Kelantan had 1,039 cases, Perak (946), Melaka (882), Pahang (664), Terengganu (495), Negeri Sembilan (405), Putrajaya (41), Perlis (38) and Labuan (nine).
Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham, in a statement, said the number of patients being treated in the intensive care unit (ICU) dropped from 1,062 yesterday to 1,035 today, with 513 cases requiring ventilators.
He also said 18,576 recoveries were reported today, bringing the cumulative total for those who had recovered to 1,260,470 and leaving 260,880 active cases.
He said 469 cases of 2.1 per cent of the cases reported today were in categories three, four and five, while 21,793 cases or 97.9 per cent were in categories one and two.
Covid-19 is a five-category disease, with category five being the most severe.
A total of 18,374 or 82.5 per cent of the new cases were either unvaccinated individuals or those who have yet to complete their two-dose vaccination.
Dr Noor Hisham said 223 fatalities were reported today, raising the death toll to 13,936.
He said the latest deaths involved 199 Malaysians and 24 foreigners, with 35 cases classified as brought in dead (BID).
Selangor topped the daily death toll with 77 cases, followed by Sabah (27), Kedah (23), Penang (20), Kuala Lumpur and Melaka (18 each), Johor (14), Negeri Sembilan (11), Perak (seven), Pahang (five), Sarawak (two) and Putrajaya (one).
On new clusters, he said 32 were detected, with 18 at workplaces, 13 in the community and one linked to religious activities.
The Covid-19 infectivity rate or R-Naught value in Malaysia yesterday was 1.04, with Perlis registering the highest value of 1.38, followed by Sarawak (1.31) and Sabah (1.23).
— Bernama
