KUALA LUMPUR: New Covid-19 cases recorded a downward trend over the past nine consecutive days and hit below the 10,000 mark with 8,112 cases reported on Sunday, says Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

       The Health director-general said prior to this, new infections dropped to 10,177 cases on April 9 from 14,944 cases the day before.

       On April 7, the figure had dropped for six consecutive days with 11,994 cases.

       The last time Malaysia recorded new cases below the 10,000 mark was on Feb 5 this year with 9,117 cases before it soared to 32,800 cases on March 8.

       Dr Noor Hisham said of the new infections, 8,056 cases or 99.31% were in Categories 1 and 2.

       “Some 56 cases or 0.69% were in Categories 3, 4 and 5,” he said in a statement.

       He also said only one new cluster was detected, bringing the number of active clusters to 130.

       Dr Noor Hisham said the country’s infectivity rate dropped slightly to 0.82 from 0.83 on April 9.

       Only two states registered Covid-19 critical or intensive care unit (ICU) bed occupancy of over 50%: Putrajaya at 100% and Selangor at 53%.

       For non-ICU bed usage, he said only Putrajaya had surpassed the 50% mark at 59% while no state had more than 50% at the Covid-19 Quarantine and Low-Risk Treatment Centre. – Bernama