KUALA LUMPUR: The number of daily COVID-19 infections in the country has dipped below 5,000 again, with 4,896 new cases recorded today.

The last time the number of new cases was in 4,000 range was on Nov 30, with 4,879 cases.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said of the new cases today, 4,878 were local transmissions, while another 18 were imported.

"Only 79 cases are in categories three, four and five while another 4,817 are in categories one and two," he said in a statement today.

Categories one and two refer to COVID-19 patients who are asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic, while categories three, four and five refer to patients with pneumonia, require oxygen assistance and breathing aids.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said 4,676 recoveries were recorded today, bringing the total number of those recovered to 2,561,230, while 490 cases were being treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with 269 of them requiring respiratory assistance.

He said four new clusters were detected today, with 227 still active nationwide, while theaverage Rt value (infectivity rate) in Malaysia as of yesterday was 0.97.

-- BERNAMA