New COVID-19 cases drop 14.2 pct last week - Dr Noor Hisham

KUALA LUMPUR: The number of new COVID-19 cases in the first epidemiological week (ME 1/2023) from Jan 1 to 7, recorded a drop of 14.2 per cent, to 3,231 cases compared with 3,767 cases reported in the previous week.

Health director-general, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said during that period, the number of local cases dropped by 14 per cent, from 3,735 to 3,213 cases.

The number of imported cases was also lower by 43.8 per cent, from 32 cases to 18 cases, he said in a statement today.

Dr Noor Hisham said the number of recoveries also showed a drop of 35.6 per cent (from 5,869 to 3,781 cases recorded in the previous week).

He added that in ME 1/2023, the number of deaths has also dropped by 4.5 per cent (from 22 to 21 cases).

According to him, cumulatively, there were 5,029,908 new cases of COVID-19 recorded from ME 4/2020, which was from Jan 25, 2020, to Jan 7, this year, with a total of 4,981,975 recoveries and 36,874 deaths reported, in the same period.

Dr Noor Hisham also said that the cumulative number of clusters was 7,167, with nine of them still active.

On admissions to hospitals and Low-Risk COVID-19 Treatment Centres for every 100,000 people, Dr Noor Hisham said that overall, it had dropped by two per cent.

He said admissions to public hospitals for category one (asymptomatic) and category two (with symptoms) saw a decline of 15.4 per cent while for category three (with lung infection), four (requiring oxygen aid) and five (on ventilator) dropped by 7.7 per cent.

In addition, he said that the percentage of bed occupancy, including non-critical care beds and intensive care unit (ICU) beds, as well as positive COVID-19 cases monitored by the COVID-19 Assessment Centre (CAC) nationwide, have also decreased.

-- BERNAMA