KUALA LUMPUR: The number of new COVID-19 cases continues to decline with 4,626 cases logged in the past 24 hours compared to 4,979 cases yesterday.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the latest development takes the cumulative cases to 2,476,268.

He said from the total new cases today, only 94 cases or two per cent involved categories three, four and five while the remaining 4,532 cases or 98 per cent were in categories one and two.

"From the total new cases, six cases were imported while 4,620 cases were local transmissions," he said in a statement on COVID-19 situation today.

Dr Noor Hisham said there were 5,299 recovery cases reported which exceeded the number of new cases and the total recovery cases are now at 2,380,060.

According to the statement, 569 cases needed treatment in intensive care unit (ICU) with 301 of the requiring respiratory assistance.

He said five new clusters were detected involving three at work places, and one each involving a high-risk group and an Education Ministry institution.

The director-general also said the infectivity rate or Rt nationwide yesterday was 0.95 with Kuala Lumpur recording the highest Rt rate at 1.02 while Labuan is the only area with zero infectivity rate.

The latest information on the current situation and the spread of COVID-19 in the country will be uploaded onto COVIDNOW at https://covidnow.moh.gov.my with data being updated at 12 midnight daily.

-- BERNAMA