PETALING JAYA: New Covid-19 cases recorded yesterday outnumbered recoveries for the fourth consecutive day.

       Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said there were 5,859 new cases and 4,970 recoveries.

       Malaysia’s cumulative Covid-19 case number is now 2,581,747, while the total number of recoveries to date stood at 2,482,284.

       “There are 529 cases requiring treatment in intensive care units (ICUs). They comprise 420 Covid-19 cases while the remaining 109 cases are suspected, probable or still under investigation,” he said in his daily Covid-19 update.

       He added that 261 cases required ventilator support.

       Of the new cases, 102 cases (1.7%) were in Categories 3, 4 and 5 while 5,757 cases (98.3%) were in Categories 1 and 2.

       Category 1 means a patient is asymptomatic. Category 2 is for those with mild symptoms.

       Category 3 cases experience pneumonia while cases in Category 4 have pneumonia and require oxygen. Category 5 patients are in critical stage requiring ventilator support.

       Of the new cases, 19 were imported while 5,840 were local infections.

       The latest data by the Health Ministry also showed that the Covid-19 infectivity rate or R-nought (Rt) in Malaysia was 1.01, with Labuan registering the highest at 1.13, followed by Putrajaya (1.12) and Kuala Lumpur (1.09).

       The states with the lowest Rt were Sabah (0.98), Perlis (0.90) and Sarawak (0.85).