KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia recorded 6,144 new Covid-19 cases as of noon today, marking a rise in daily cases after staying between in the 4,000 and 5,000 range for the past four days.
On Sunday and Monday, the figures stood at 4,854 and 4,885 cases respectively before it climbed to 5,594 and 5,755 on Tuesday and Wednesday.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the fresh infections today bring the national tally to 2,608,979 since the pandemic struck last year.
"Of the new cases today, 6,132 (5,862 Malaysians and 270 foreigners) were local infections, while the remaining 12 cases were imported (11 Malaysians and a foreigner)," he said in a statement today.
Dr Noor Hisham added that out of the 6,144 cases reported, only 96 cases or 1.6 per cent were in Categories 3, 4, and 5.
The remaining 6,048 (98.4 per cent), he said, were asymptomatic or had mild symptoms, under Categories 1 and 2.
"To date, 516 patients are being treated at intensive care units, including 272 of them who are on ventilator support.
"A total of 6,602 patients have recovered, raising the cumulative number of recoveries to 2,510,029."
Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said the nation's R-naught (Rt) had yesterday dropped to 0.99, after 13 days of hovering between 1.0 and 1.05.
The last time the Rt was marked at 0.99 was on Nov 10 and the lowest this month was 0.91 on Nov 6.
Dr Noor Hisham said 12 states and territories have recorded Rt of over 1.0 with Labuan and Putrajaya registering the highest Rt of 1.18 and 1.12.
"This is followed by Kuala Lumpur at 1.05, Selangor (1.04), Sabah (1.01), Penang (1), Johor (1.04), Melaka (1.02), Negri Sembilan (1.01), Kedah (1.01), Pahang (1.03), Perak (1.02).
"States with Rt below 1.0 are Terengganu (0.98), Sarawak (0.81), Perlis (0.96) and Kelantan (0.99)," he said in a statement today.
Dr Noor Hisham had earlier this month expressed concern over the country's Rt of over 1.0 which indicated the possibility of a new Covid-19 wave.
Rt refers to the infectivity rate of a virus and the ability of a positive patient to transmit it to others.
If the Rt value is 1.5, it means a positive patient would be able to infect one or two other persons.
On new clusters, Dr Noor Hisham said another seven clusters were identified today.
Currently, he said there are 253 active clusters nationwide of the total 5,913 clusters recorded to date.
Dr Noor Hisham added that detailed information and breakdown of cases will be uploaded to the ministry's CovidNow portal (https://covidnow.moh.gov.my).
"Detailed information of the Covid-19 infection and transmission will be uploaded to the CovidNow website, with the data being updated at midnight daily."
