KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 — A total of 153 cases or 0.68 per cent of the 22,341 new Covid-19 cases reported yesterday (March 19) involved categories three to five, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
He said the remaining 22,188 cases were in categories one and two, thus taking the cumulative number of Covid-19 infections in the country to 3,974,019.
Meanwhile, 33,347 recovered cases were reported yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of recoveries to 3,656,415.
“Of the 153 cases in categories three to five, 48 involved unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated individuals, 61 had received two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine but not the booster shot and 44 cases had received the booster dose,” he said in a statement today.
Dr Noor Hisham said 1,394 Covid-19 cases were admitted to the hospital yesterday, with 554 cases or 39.7 per cent involving categories three to five, while 840 cases or 60.3 per cent comprised categories one and two.
He said a total of 390 patients required treatment in the intensive care unit (ICU) and 291 of them required respiratory assistance.
Meanwhile, nine states showed more than 50 per cent usage of ICU beds, namely Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya (67 per cent); Perlis (64 per cent); Kelantan (63 per cent); Johor (59 per cent); Selangor (58 per cent); Sarawak (53 per cent); as well as Perak and Penang (51 per cent).
Dr Noor Hisham said the infectivity rate (Rt) in the country is now at 0.92, with Sarawak having the highest value at 1.06.
Other states with Rt exceeding 1.0 are Kuala Lumpur (1.03) as well as Negeri Sembilan and Perak (1.01 each).
— Bernama
