PETALING JAYA: Malaysia’s daily new Covid-19 cases dipped below the 20,000 mark again with 17,352 cases recorded.

       Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said Sarawak had overtaken Selangor with the most daily cases at 3,714.

       Selangor recorded 2,126 cases, followed by Johor with 1,844 and Kedah with 1,599.

       Dr Noor Hisham said 17,084 cases were in Categories 1 and 2, while the remaining 268 were in Categories 3, 4 and 5.

       “A total of 11,250 cases or 65.9% of those in Categories 1 and 2 while 191 cases (71.3%) of those in Categories 3, 4 and 5 were either not fully vaccinated or unvaccinated,” he added.

       Dr Noor Hisham said 272 Covid-19 fatalities were also recorded yesterday, bringing the total death toll to 18,491.

       “Of this number, 227 were locals while 45 were foreigners,” he said, adding that 81 were brought-in-dead cases.

       Selangor and Johor had the most number of deaths at 63 each, followed by Sabah (31), Kuala Lumpur (21) and Penang (20).

       As of 5pm on Sunday, usage of the 77 intensive care unit (ICU) beds in Penang had reached 94% while the 830 non-ICU beds had hit 122% usage.

       In Perlis, usage of the 195 non-ICU beds had reached 109%.

       Dr Noor Hisham said 30 new clusters had been identified, with 16 of them linked to workplaces, seven to communities, four to high-risk groups, two to educational institutions and one to a detention centre.

       Meanwhile, the Health Ministry said the country’s infectivity rate or R-naught (R0) was below 1.0 at 0.96, with Sarawak recording the highest at 1.17, followed by Perlis (1.15) and Johor (1.10).