PUTRAJAYA: The number of daily Covid-19 cases went up slightly yesterday, but recoveries outnumbered infections for the second consecutive day.
In his daily Covid-19 statement, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said there were 20,988 new cases and 23,473 more recoveries in the last 24 hours.
The number of recoveries is also a new daily record for the country.
Dr Noor Hisham said that out of the latest infections, about 98.4% were either mild or asymptomatic cases. About 1.6% or 341 cases were those in Categories Three, Four and Five.
Overall, 47% of the cases involved those who were unvaccinated while another 23.8% had received only one dose.
Another 29.2% were those who were fully vaccinated.
Cumulatively, Malaysia has had 1.7 million confirmed cases since the pandemic began, of which 1.5 million (84%) have recovered.
Yesterday, Selangor recorded the highest out of all states with 4,073 new cases. Sarawak recorded 2,992 cases.
Meanwhile, another 249 people died, bringing the country’s Covid-19 death toll to 17,191.
Selangor reported the most number of deaths with 61 fatalities, followed by Johor with 40 cases and Penang with 39.
A total of 80 death cases were classified as “brought-in-dead”, 33 of which were reported in Selangor.
Currently, there are 262,540 active Covid-19 patients nationwide, including 1,417 patients in intensive care units (ICUs). Of that, 1,001 are confirmed as Covid-19 cases while another 416 are suspected cases.
There are also 783 patients requiring breathing assistance, of whom 470 are confirmed to be Covid-19 positive.
The ministry also confirmed the discovery of 31 new Covid-19 clusters, of which 17 are workplace-related outbreaks.
Earlier, the ministry said the usage of ICU beds in the country was at 90%, with Sabah (126% out of 145 beds), Kedah (121% out of 104) and Perak (107% out of 90) operating at overcapacity.
In total, there are 1,608 ICU beds nationwide.