COVID: New cases down to 4,239 Sunday - Health DG

KUALA LUMPUR: The number of new COVID-19 cases in the country continues to drop, to 4,239 cases from 5,097 reported yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of positive cases in the country to 2,623,816 as of 12 noon today.

Health director-general, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, said of the total new cases recorded, 4,227 were local transmissions while the remaining 12 were imported cases.

"Of the 4,239 new cases recorded, only 73 are in categories 3 to 5 while 4,166 cases are in categories 1 and 2," he said in a statement on the development of the COVID-19 situation today.

Categories 1 and 2 refer to COVID-19 patients who are asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic. Category 3 is classified as those with pneumonia and requiring hospital treatment and observation, category 4 (pneumonia and requiring oxygen) and category 5 (critical and requiring respiratory assistance).

Dr Noor Hisham said that 5,007 recovered cases were reported, bringing the total number of recoveries to 2,527,052.

In addition, Dr Noor Hisham said 418 confirmed COVID-19 patients were treated in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), with 173 of them requiring respiratory assistance.

Three new clusters were detected today, with 228 clusters still active nationwide.

He added that Malaysia's infectivity rate (Rt) value was 0.96 as of yesterday, down from 0.97 reported on Nov 26.

Other detailed information on the current situation of COVID-19 infection and transmission in Malaysia will be uploaded on the COVIDNOW website at https://covidnow.moh.gov.my and data is updated at 12 midnight daily.

-- BERNAMA