Covid-19: Slight dip in daily cases but total remains above 22,000

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia saw a slight dip in new Covid-19 cases on Friday (Aug 27) compared to the day before with 22,070 new infections recorded.

On Thursday (Aug 26), Malaysia recorded an all-time high of 24,599 cases.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said Selangor continued to log the highest number of cases in the country with 5,920, followed by Sabah with 3,010.

Sarawak saw a total of 2,224 cases, followed by Kedah with 2,072; Penang (1,829); Johor (1,809) and Kuala Lumpur (1,068).

Labuan was the only area to record single-digit figures with eight new Covid-19 cases on Friday (Aug 27).

"From the 22,070 cases, 412 cases (1.9%) were from categories Three, Four and Five while another 21,658 cases (98.1%) comprises those in Categories One and Two," Dr Noor Hisham said in a statement on Friday.

Category One patients are asymptomatic while those in Category Two have mild symptoms. Category Three cases experience pneumonia while cases in Category Four have pneumonia and require oxygen.

Category Five patients are in a critical stage, requiring ventilator support.

He also said the Covid-19 infectivity rate or R-naught (Rt) in Malaysia yesterday was 1.02, with Perlis registering the highest among states at 1.23, followed by Sarawak (1.20) and Sabah (1.19).

The total cumulative number of cases nationwide to date stands at 1,662,913.

Overall, he said 17,029 cases or 77.2% of the total cases reported on Friday were either completely unvaccinated or had not been fully vaccinated yet.

A total of 21,877 recovered cases were reported in the last 24 hours, bringing the cumulative figure for recoveries in the country to 1,381,668.

There are a total of 265,695 active cases.

Dr Noor HIsham said there were 339 fatalities, bringing the death toll to 15,550.

There are still 982 patients in intensive care units, with 470 requiring ventilation support.