KUALA LUMPUR: About 129 cases or 0.47 per cent of the 27,299 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday (Feb 26) were in categories three, four and five.

       Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a statement on Sunday (Feb 27) said the majority of the cases - 27,170 or 99.53 per cent - were in categories one and two.

       This brings the cumulative total of cases in Malaysia to 3,395,170.

       "Of the 129 cases in categories three, four and five, 32 were individuals who were unvaccinated or have yet to complete the vaccination, 71 were fully vaccinated but yet to receive the booster dose and 26 have received the booster dose,” he said.

       As of Feb 26, a total of 1,624 cases were admitted to hospitals, of which 598 (36.8 per cent) were in categories three, four and five; while the remaining 1,026 (63.2 per cent) were in categories one and two.

       He said 22,710 cases of recoveries were reported, bringing the cumulative figure to 3,063,560.

       On the intensive care unit (ICU) bed usage, Dr Noor Hisham said five states recorded bed usage of 50 per cent or more, namely Kelantan (94 per cent), Melaka (71 per cent), Johor (67 per cent), Kuala Lumpur (58 per cent) and Putrajaya (50 per cent).

       Meanwhile, he said Malaysia recorded a 167 per cent increase in Covid-19 cases from 43,062 cases in the fifth epidemiological week (EW) to 115,032 cases in the sixth EW.

       He said as of Feb 19, Malaysia reported 950 cases of Omicron variant involving 764 imported cases and 186 cases of local transmissions.

       Other Asean countries including Singapore, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines have also seen a rise in such cases.

       Dr Noor Hisham said the results of SARS-CoV-2 genome surveillance data for the past six months from August 2021 to Jan 2022 recorded that the Omicron variant comprised 80 per cent of all genome sequencing results in Malaysia.

       Although the Omicron variant causes milder symptoms and complications than other variants, he said among the measures that need to be implemented to flatten the Covid-19 curve is to increase the vaccination coverage.

       "In addition, Covid-19 Assessment Centre (CAC) services nationwide need to be optimised for the treatment of categories 1 and 2a patients by increasing the virtual capacity of CACs as well as hospital service readiness in the treatment of patients in category 2b and above," he added.- Bernama