PETALING JAYA: Malaysia recorded 22,491 new Covid-19 infections on Wednesday (March 23), bringing the cumulative total number of cases in the country to 4,054,926 since the pandemic began.

       The Health Ministry's CovidNow portal reported that 22,109 of Wednesday's Covid-19 cases were local transmissions while there were 382 imported cases.

       The portal also reported that recoveries continued to outstrip daily infections with 26,234 recovering from Covid-19 on Wednesday.

       There are currently 248,863 active Covid-19 infections in the country, with 241,114, or 96.9%, undergoing home quarantine and a further 1,366 patients admitted to low-risk quarantine and treatment centres nationwide.

       CovidNow said that 6,051, or 2.4% of active Covid-19 cases, have been warded in hospital while 332 individuals, or 0.2%, are currently being treated at intensive care units (ICUs).

       There are currently 189 Covid-19 cases requiring ventilator support in ICU, while the remaining 143 are unventilated.

       The country's ICU utilisation rate stands at 59.6% nationwide, with eight states or localities reporting ICU usage rates of more than 60%.

       The ICU utilisation rate in Penang and Kuala Lumpur is currently at 78.4%, followed by Kelantan with 72.2%, Johor (71.1%), the Klang Valley (68.6%), and Selangor (64.6%).

       Meanwhile, the Health Ministry's GitHub data repository reported that 65 Covid-19-related deaths were reported on Monday, with 15 classified as brought-in-dead. This brings the total number of Covid-19 deaths in Malaysia to 34,535.