KUALA LUMPUR: The number of daily COVID-19 cases in Malaysia continued to show a downward trend with 4,343 cases as of noon today, compared to 4,701 cases yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of cases to 2,506,309.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the number of new cases recorded was also lower than today's recoveries of 5,190 cases, bringing the cumulative number of recovered cases to 2,412,395.

"Of the total new cases today, 68 cases or 1.6 per cent involved categories three, four and five, while the remaining 4,275 cases or 98.4 per cent were from categories one and two," he said in a statement on the COVID-19 situation today.

Categories one and two refer to patients with mild symptoms or none at all, category three are patients with pneumonia, while patients in categories four and five require oxygen and need ventilators, respectively.

He said the figure also included nine import cases involving six locals and three foreigners and 4,334 local transmission cases involving 4,120 locals and 214 non-citizens.

He said 554 cases required intensive care treatment along with 272 cases requiring respiratory support.

Dr Noor Hisham said seven new clusters were identified today, involving the community, workplaces and higher education in Kelantan, Johor, Sabah, Penang and Melaka, bringing the number of active clusters to 325.

On the infectivity rate, he said the Rt value for the country was 0.91, with Putrajaya recording the highest value at 1.09 and Labuan with a zero value.

Detailed information about the current situation of COVID-19 infections in Malaysia will be uploaded on the COVIDNOW website at https://covidnow.moh.gov.my and the data would be updated at midnight every day, he added.

-- BERNAMA