KUALA LUMPUR: Only 129 cases or 0.47% of the 27,299 new Covid-19 cases reported on Saturday were of Categories 3 to 5, says Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

       He said the majority of cases – 27,170 or 99.53% – was in Categories 1 and 2.

       The latest figure brings the cumulative number of cases in Malaysia to 3,395,170.

       “Of the 129 cases in Categories 3, 4 and 5, 32 were individuals who were unvaccinated or had yet to complete their vaccination, 71 were fully vaccinated but yet to receive the booster dose, and 26 have received the booster dose,” he added.

       As of Saturday, a total of 1,624 cases were admitted to hospitals, of which 598 (36.8%) were in Categories 3 to 5, while the remaining 1,026 (63.2%) were in Categories 1 and 2.

       Dr Noor Hisham said 22,710 recoveries were reported, bringing the cumulative figure to 3,063,560.

       On intensive care unit (ICU) bed usage, he said five states recorded bed usage of 50% or more, namely Kelantan (94%), Melaka (71%), Johor (67%), Kuala Lumpur (58%) and Putrajaya (50%).

       Bernama reported him as saying in a statement that Malaysia recorded a 167% increase in Covid-19 cases from 43,062 cases in the fifth epidemiological week (EW 5) to 115,032 cases in EW 6.

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

       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 January this year showed that the Omicron variant comprised 80% 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 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.