PUTRAJAYA: Another 17,000 Covid-19 patients were discharged from treatment in the last 24-hour span up to noon on Wednesday (Sept 29), the Health Ministry said.

       In his daily Covid-19 statement, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said since the pandemic began, more than two million or 91% of patients had recovered from being infected with the coronavirus.

       With 12,434 new Covid-19 infections reported in the same 24-hour period, this meant that for the 13th day straight recoveries had outnumbered cases.

       Dr Noor Hisham said most of the new cases were either mild or asymptomatic.

       "Of the 12,434 new cases, 98% belong to Categories 1 and 2. Another 207 cases (1.7%) are of Categories 3, 4 and 5," he added.

       Five states reported four-digit case increases – Sarawak with 2,967, Selangor (1,362), Johor (1,289), Kelantan (1,125) and Sabah (1,000).

       Kuala Lumpur continued reporting low case numbers with 284.

       The number of patients in intensive care units (ICU) is now at 979.

       "Of the 979, 871 are confirmed Covid-19 cases while the others are suspected cases," said Dr Noor Hisham.

       There are 565 patients on ventilator support.

       Malaysia’s infectivity rate was at an Rt level of 0.88, as of Tuesday (Sept 28).

       Only Putrajaya (1.01) and Terengganu (1.00) have an Rt level of 1 or above.

       The Health Ministry also identified 15 new infection clusters nationwide, bringing the current total to 1,124.