PETALING JAYA: Some 475 Covid-19 cases involving the Delta and Beta variants were found nationwide between Sept 13 and 25, says the Health Ministry.

       Almost all (472) of the cases involved the Delta variant, while three comprised the Beta strain.

       "Sarawak had the bulk of these cases involving variants of concern (VOC), recording 302 Delta variant cases.

       "This is followed by Selangor which recorded 54 Delta cases," said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in his daily Covid-19 update on Saturday (Sept 25).

       Two cases of the Beta variant were detected in Sabah and one case was found in Penang.

       "With the latest number, this brings the cumulative number of cases involving VOC and variants of interest (VOI) in the country to 1,860.

       "Of the total, 1,840 are VOC, while 20 involve VOI," Dr Noor Hisham said.

       He said the Delta variant tops the list with the most cases (1,612), followed by Beta (214) and Alpha (14).

       "For VOI, 13 cases were involving Theta, four were involving Kappa while three were involving the Eta strain," he added.

       Sarawak also tops the list for the cumulative number of cases involving VOC and VOI, with 1,059 of the total 1,860 cases nationwide.

       This is followed by Selangor (224), Johor (83), Penang (64), Sabah (63), Kedah (57), Kuala Lumpur (57) and Pahang (57).

       Dr Noor Hisham said 12 new clusters were identified, while 4,187 clusters came to a close.

       "The current number of active clusters now stands at 1,214," he added.

       Of the total 13,899 new Covid-19 infections recorded on Saturday, Dr Noor Hisham said 98.5% comprised patients who were asymptomatic or with mild symptoms (Categories One and Two).

       "Some 211 cases or 1.5% had more severe symptoms, namely those in Categories Three to Five," he said.

       A total of 1,071 cases are currently being treated in intensive care units, with 847 confirmed to have Covid-19, while 224 are cases under investigation.

       Some 601 cases require ventilator support, with 359 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 242 cases under investigation.

       All states in Malaysia recorded an infectivity rate (Rt) of below 1.0, except Pahang with a value of 1.01.

       "Malaysia's Rt value is at 0.9 as of Sept 24," Dr Noor Hisham said, which was the same as on Friday (Sept 24).