PETALING JAYA: Malaysia recorded 33,209 new Covid-19 infections on Friday (March 4), says the Health Ministry.

       The ministry's CovidNow portal also said that this brought the total number of infections in the country to 3,561,766 cases since the pandemic began.

       The Health Ministry reported that there were 441 imported Covid-19 infections on Friday, with the remaining 32,768 cases the result of local transmissions.

       The CovidNow portal also said that there 26,352 recoveries on Friday, bringing the total number of active cases in Malaysia to 305,010 cases.

       Of the active cases, 96%, or 292,696 individuals, are undergoing home quarantine, while 3,442 people, or 1.1% of the active infections are being treated at low-risk quarantine and treatment centres (PKRC).

       Only 2.8% of active cases, or 8,524 individuals, needed to be hospitalised, with a total of 348 warded in intensive care units (ICU) throughout the country.

       As of Friday, hospital bed utilisation in the country stood at 68.1%, with only one state or locality - Labuan - reporting hospital bed usage of less than 50%.

       According to data from the Health Ministry's GitHub repository, a total of 78 deaths were recorded on Friday, of which 22 cases were classified as brought-in-dead (BID).

       The CovidNow portal also reported 17 new clusters in the country on Friday, bringing the total number of active clusters to 476. Ten of Friday's new clusters were from the Education category.