KUALA LUMPUR: The number of daily COVID-19 cases in Malaysia continued to show a downward trend, with 4,979 new cases recorded as at noon today compared to 5,854 yesterday.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this took the total number of infections to 2,471,642.

Of the new cases, only 85 cases or 1.7 per cent were in categories three, four and five while the remaining 4,894 cases or 98.3 per cent were in categories one and two.

"Of the new cases, 23 were imported while 4,956 involved local transmissions," he said in a statement today.

He added that a total of 6,127 new recoveries were reported, thus exceeding the number of new cases while the total number of recoveries now stood at 2,374,761.

Apart from that, a total of 562 patients are still being treated in the intensive care units (ICU), with 326 requiring respiratory assistance.

He also said that six new clusters were identified, with two each involving a higher educational institution and community and one each involving other educational institution and workplace.

According to Dr Noor Hisham, the infectivity rate or Rt for the whole country yesterday was 0.96, with Negeri Sembilan and Kuala Lumpur registering the highest value of 1.02 and Labuan the only state with zero Rt.

Detailed information on the current situation of COVID-19 infection and transmission in the country will be uploaded to the COVIDNOW website at https://covidnow.moh.gov.my and the data will be updated at midnight daily.

-- BERNAMA