KUALA LUMPUR: New daily Covid-19 cases recorded on Sunday (March 13) dropped to 22,535 cases as compared to 26,250 on Saturday (March 12), says Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

       He said of the 22,535 cases recorded on Sunday, 8,637 cases, or 38.33%, were in category one, 13,713 cases, or 60.85%, in category two while for categories three, four and five there were 185 cases or 0.82%.

       In a statement on Monday (March 14) on daily developments on the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, he said 1,757 cases were hospitalised with 721, or 41%, of them being in categories three, four and five while 1,036 cases (59%) were category one and two patients.

       As for the country's infectivity rate (Rt) on Sunday, Dr Noor Hisham said it also dropped to 0.97 from 0.99 on Saturday.

       On Covid-19 bed occupancy for critical cases or in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at the Ministry of Health hospitals, he stated that four states and two federal territories recorded more than 50% usage on Sunday, namely Putrajaya at 100%, Kelantan (75%), Johor and Kuala Lumpur (73%), Selangor (58%) and Perlis (55%).

       However, he said there was an increase in Covid-19 patients who needed ventilator support, involving 222 patients or 25% compared to 211 patients or 24% on Saturday. - Bernama