PETALING JAYA: Two new clusters have been recorded, contributing 29 cases out of the 5,828 new Covid-19 infections, says the Health Ministry.

       The 29 new cases originated from two workplace clusters – the Jalan Sentol Kluang cluster (10) in Johor and Blok 03 cluster (19) in Sabah.

       The total number of active clusters is now 557.

       The figures were disclosed by Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in the ministry’s daily Covid-19 update yesterday.

       Malaysia’s cumulative Covid-19 case number is now 2,426,050. However, there were also 9,178 recoveries nationwide for a total of 2,320,391 recoveries to date.

       “There are 620 cases requiring treatment in intensive care units (ICU). They comprise 533 Covid-19 cases and 87 suspected, probable and cases under investigation,” Dr Noor Hisham said, adding that 297 cases required ventilator support.

       Dr Noor Hisham said that of the 5,828 new cases, 97 cases (1.7%) were from Categories 3, 4 and 5 while 5,731 cases (98.3%) were from Categories 1 and 2.

       Category 1 means a patient is asymptomatic. Category 2 is for those with mild symptoms.

       Category 3 cases experience pneumonia while cases in Category 4 have pneumonia and require oxygen. Category 5 patients are in a critical stage requiring ventilator support.

       Of the new cases, seven were imported cases while 5,821 were local infections.

       The latest data by the Health Ministry also showed that the Covid-19 infectivity rate or R-naught (Rt) in Malaysia was 0.87, with Kuala Lumpur registering the highest at 1.02, followed by Negri Sembilan (0.98) and Putrajaya (0.95). The states with the lowest recorded Rt were Sarawak (0.80), Perlis (0.75) and Labuan with 0.