PETALING JAYA: Forty-three new cases of infectious diseases were detected among flood victims throughout Malaysia, says the Health Ministry.

       Thirty-five of them involved acute respiratory infections while seven others had acute gastroenteritis, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

       One new case involved a skin disease.

       “With the latest cases, the cumulative total of infectious diseases found among flood victims is now at 2,402,” he said in a statement on Saturday (Jan 8).

       Dr Noor Hisham said there were a total of 58 temporary evacuation centres (PPS) still operating in three states, namely Johor (49), Pahang (six) and Melaka (three).

       The current total number of flood victims is at 4,467.

       “There was one new Covid-19 case reported among the flood victims, but no new cases were detected in PPS today,” he said.

       As for the overall Covid-19 cases in the country, Dr Noor Hisham said 98.2% of the 3,251 new infections were asymptomatic (Category One) and those with mild symptoms (Category Two).

       “Only 1.8% or 58 cases belonged in Categories Three, Four and Five,” he said, referring to patients with more severe symptoms.

       Two new clusters were detected, taking the current number of active clusters to 176.

       Of the new cases, 243 patients were in intensive care units, while 113 required ventilator support.

       Malaysia’s Covid-19 infectivity rate or R-nought (Rt) now stands at 0.96, with five states and territories exceeding a value of over 1.0.

       They are Labuan (1.15), Sabah (1.06), Putrajaya (1.01), Negri Sembilan (1.00) and Melaka (1.00).