KUALA LUMPUR: On the eve of Malaysia’s reopening, the country continues to record new Covid-19 daily numbers of below 20,000 for four days straight while 67% of the total adult population has received their booster shots.

       Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that 15,941 cases were reported on Wednesday, bringing the cumulative number of cases in the country to 4,183,359.

       The number of daily cases reported last Sunday was 16,863, followed by 13,336 cases the following day and 15,215 cases on Tuesday, Bernama reported.

       Of the total new cases recorded on Wednesday, Dr Noor Hisham said 7,474 cases were in Category 1, Category 2 (8,359 cases), Category 3 (50 cases), Category 4 (26 cases) and Category 5 with 32 cases.

       “Of the 108 Covid-19 cases in Categories 3, 4 and 5 reported on Wednesday, 26 cases were not vaccinated or not completely vaccinated, 45 cases had received two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine but had not received the booster dose, while 37 cases had received the booster dose,” he said in a statement yesterday.

       Dr Noor Hisham also said that a total of 21,186 Covid-19 recovery cases were reported on Wednesday, bringing the total of recoveries in the country to 3,941,829 cases.

       He added that of the total new cases recorded on Wednesday, 275 cases required treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) while 168 cases required respiratory assistance.

       On the use of health facilities specifically for Covid-19 cases, he said three states recorded more than 50% usage of ICU beds, namely Putrajaya with 67%, Selangor (55%) and Kuala Lumpur (53%).

       For beds at the Covid-19 Low Risk Quarantine and Treatment Centres (PKRC), he said, no state recorded usage exceeding 50% while the number of Covid-19 patients in need of ventilator support dropped to 168 patients.

       Dr Noor Hisham said that a total of 845 Covid-19 cases were admitted to hospital on Wednesday, with 366 cases in Categories 3, 4 and 5, while the rest were in Categories 1 and 2.

       On the infectivity rate or Rt value, it was 0.88 nationwide, with Selangor still recording the highest rate of 1.04 and Sabah the lowest rate at 0.67.

       According to the Health Ministry’s GitHub data repository, 33 deaths due to Covid-19 were recorded on Wednesday, with Johor and Kedah recording the highest number of cases at six each, followed by Kuala Lumpur and Perak with four cases each, while Sarawak and Pahang had three cases each.

       Apart from that, Penang and Selangor recorded two cases each, while Sabah, Kelantan and Negri Sembilan recorded one case each.

       On Twitter, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said as the country entered the endemic phase, the Omicron wave was under control.

       “The country’s Rt is 0.88. The public health system has enough capacity but let’s not let our guard down,” he said in a tweet.