PETALING JAYA: The infectivity rate (Rt) in the country is now at 1.01.

       The Rt in the country has been showing a gradual decline since it reached 1.20 on July 17.

       "Sarawak recorded the highest Rt value at 1.23, followed by Perlis at 1.21 and Sabah at 1.18.

       "Six states had Rt values lower than 1.0, namely Melaka, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Negri Sembilan, Putrajaya and Labuan," said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah (pic).

       The Rt (also known as R0 or R-naught) value refers to the average number of people that a person with Covid-19 infects.

       In his daily Covid-19 update on Saturday (Aug 28), he said a total of 252 deaths from Covid-19 were recorded on Saturday – a dip from 339 fatalities on Friday.

       Selangor had the most fatalities with 91, followed by Johor (46), Kuala Lumpur (26) and Kedah (18).

       "There were 36 new Covid-19 clusters, bringing the current number of active clusters in the country to 1,468," Dr Noor Hisham.

       Most of the clusters (23) originated from workplaces, which accounted for 1,002 cases.

       Of the 22,597 new cases on Saturday, most cases (97.9%) involved patients who were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms (Categories 1 and 2).

       Some 2.1% had more severe symptoms, namely those in Categories 3, 4 and 5.

       "Most or 76.8% of the total new cases on Saturday (17,345 infections) involved those who have yet to be vaccinated or have yet to complete their inoculation," Dr Noor Hisham said.

       The number of active Covid-19 cases in the country now stands at 268,548.

       There were 19,492 recoveries, bringing the total cumulative number to 1,401,160 or a recovery rate of 83.13%.

       Some 986 cases are being treated in intensive care units, with 451 requiring ventilator support.