KUALA LUMPUR: New COVID-19 cases in the country dropped slightly today to 21,072 cases, compared with 22,802 yesterday, after seven consecutive days of recording an upward trend.

Health director-general, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, in a post on his Twitter account, said that the cumulative number of cases had now increased to 3,040,235.

Of the total new cases, 99.59 per cent, or 20,986 cases, were in categories one and two while 0.41 per cent, or 86 cases, were in categories three, four and five.

He said the COVID-19 infectivity rate (Rt) was 1.49 yesterday, with Labuan registering the highest Rt of 2.14, followed by Sarawak (1.67); Sabah (1.66); Perlis (1.47) and Penang (1.46).


Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham, in a statement later, said of 21,072 new infections today, 65 were imported cases while 21,007 were local transmissions, adding that 187 cases were being treated in the intensive care unit, 109 of whom require respiratory assistance.

Also, 5,724 recovered cases were recorded today taking the total number of recoveries so far to 2,852,437.

He also said that 10 new COVID-19 clusters were detected, adding that there are now 421 active clusters in the country.

Detailed information on the COVID-19 current situation in Malaysia will be uploaded on the COVIDNOW website at https://covidnow.moh.gov.my.

-- BERNAMA