KUALA LUMPUR: Only 185 cases or 0.76 per cent of the 24,241 new Covid-19 cases reported on Friday (March 18) were in categories three to five, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah (pic).

       He said the remaining 24,056 cases were from Categories One and Two, bringing the cumulative figure for positive Covid-19 cases to 3,951,678.

       Meanwhile, a total of 26,615 recoveries were reported yesterday, bringing the cumulative recovered cases to 3,623,068.

       "Of 185 cases in Categories Three to Five, 60 cases involved unvaccinated or not fully vaccinated individuals, 71 cases have received two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine but not the booster shot and 54 cases have received a booster dose,” he said in a statement on Saturday (March 19).

       Dr Noor Hisham said a total of 1,665 Covid-19 cases were admitted to the hospital yesterday, with 679 cases or 40.8 per cent were in categories three to five, while 986 cases or 59.2 per cent were in Categories One and Two.

       He said a total of 383 cases required treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and 222 of them required respiratory assistance, thus making the percentage of ventilator use drop to 25%.

       Meanwhile, eight states recorded more than 50% occupancy rates in the critical and ICU beds, namely Kuala Lumpur (73%); Putrajaya (67%); Perlis (64%); Kelantan (63%); Selangor (57%), Penang and Sarawak (55% while Johor (53%).

       Dr Noor Hisham said the infectivity rate (Rt) in the country is 0.92, with Sarawak registering the highest value at 1.10.

       Other states with a Rt exceeding 1.0 are Kuala Lumpur (1.04), Terengganu (1.03) while Negeri Sembilan and Perak at 1.02. - Bernama