PETALING JAYA: The Covid-19 infectivity rate (Rt) in the country now stands at 1.18, says Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

       The Health director-general also said that Terengganu recorded the highest infectivity rate at 1.31 while Kuala Lumpur and Selangor's infectivity rate is currently at 1.19 and 1.17 respectively and

       Perlis recorded an infectivity rate of 0.

       The Rt value refers to the average number of people that a person who has the coronavirus has infected.

       He added that cases that require hospitalisation and intensive care unit (ICU) treatment take a longer period of time, thus directly affecting the availability of beds at hospitals and quarantine centres.

       "That is why we must continue to protect ourselves, our families and the community from being infected by Covid-19," he said in a statement on Sunday (July 18).

       On cluster updates, Dr Noor Hisham said that 17 new clusters were recorded and of that 10 were linked to workplaces and three of those clusters were identified in Selangor.

       Four community clusters were also identified, of which three were in the Johor Baru district.

       A detention facility cluster in Tawau, Sabah was also listed in the latest cluster update.