PETALING JAYA: Malaysia recorded 22,341 new Covid-19 cases on Saturday (March 19), bringing the total number of cases in the country to 3,974,019 infections since the pandemic began.

       The Health Ministry's CovidNow portal reported that 21,817 of Saturday's new Covid-19 cases were local transmissions while 524 imported infections were logged.

       Recoveries continued to outpace new infections, with 33,347 patients recovering on Saturday. This brings the cumulative number of recoveries in Malaysia to 3,656,415 since the pandemic began.

       The portal also reported that there were 283,275 active cases currently in the country, with 273,974, or 96.7%, observing home quarantine and 1,747 individuals, or 0.6%, admitted to low-risk quarantine and treatment centres.

       The CovidNow portal reported that 7,164 patients, or 2.5% of the total, were currently admitted to hospital for treatment. The number of Covid-19 patients warded at intensive care units (ICU) throughout the country stands at 390, with 219 of these patients requiring ventilation support.

       The ICU utilisation rate nationwide stood at 60.7%, with 10 states or localities recording ICU usage rates of more than 60%.

       Perlis had the highest ICU utilisation rate at 78.9%, followed by Kuala Lumpur (77.3%), Kelantan (72.8%), Johor (69.3%) and the Klang Valley (68.6%).

       Meanwhile, the Health Ministry's GitHub data repository reported that 85 Covid-19 deaths were reported on Saturday, of which 25 were classified as brought-in-dead (BID).