KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 20,579 new Covid-19 cases were reported yesterday, down from 22,597 cases on Saturday, says Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

       In a tweet, he said this brought the cumulative number of cases in the country to 1,706,089.

       He said Selangor still had the highest number of cases with 4,591, followed by Sabah (2,578), Sarawak (2,522), Johor (1,852), Kedah (1,755) and Penang (1,378).

       “A total of 1,316 cases were recorded in Kelantan, Perak (1,208), Pahang (839), Terengganu (789), Kuala Lumpur (680), Melaka (636) Negri Sembilan (329), Perlis (56), Putrajaya (48) and Labuan (two),” he added.

       In a statement, he said from the 20,579 new cases, 455 or 2.2% were in Categories Three, Four and Five while the remaining 20,124 comprised cases in Categories One and Two.

       On the overall, 15,651 cases or 76.1% were reported have no or incomplete vaccination.

       He said there were 20,845 recovery cases yesterday, bringing the cumulative total recoveries to 1,422,005 while active cases now total 267,997.

       Dr Noor Hisham also said 1,009 patients were being treated at intensive care units with 477 of requiring respiratory assistance.

       He said there were 285 new deaths reported involving 240 locals and 45 foreigners while 51 cases were brought in dead (BID).

       On the 26 new clusters detected, he said 20 of them involved workplaces, five in the community and one at an education premises.

       Based on the latest data, the Covid-19 infectivity rate or R-Naught (Rt) in Malaysia on Saturday was 1.01 and states registering the highest Rt were Sarawak with Rt of 1.25, followed by Perlis (1.21), and Sabah (1.16).

       All other states recorded Rt above 1.0 except Pahang, Melaka, Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Labuan and Negri Sembilan. — Bernama