Covid-19: 98.5% of new cases on Friday (Oct 22) are mild, asymptomatic, says Health DG

PETALING JAYA: Covid-19 cases continue to increase from Thursday (Oct 21), with 6,630 new cases reported on Friday (Oct 22).

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said of the new cases, 6,529, or 98.5% of them, were mild and asymptomatic.

The remaining 101 cases or 1.5% were Category Three, Four and Five infections, he said in a statement.

There were 15 import cases, which consisted of 11 Malaysians and four foreigners.

Of the 6,615 local cases, 6,330 or 95.7% of them were citizens, while 285 or 4.3% of them were foreigners.

Cumulatively, Malaysia has recorded a total of 2,420,222 Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic last year.

Meanwhile, there were 7,630 recoveries, bringing the total number to 2,311,213, or 95.5%.

There are now 653 patients in intensive care units nationwide, with 322 cases on ventilator support.

As of Friday, the infectivity rate of the country is at 0.86, with the highest infectivity rate recorded in Kuala Lumpur (1.03) followed by Negri Sembilan (1.00).

All the other areas recorded an infectivity rate of below one.

As of Thursday (Oct 21), there were 96 new deaths, bringing the death toll to 28,234.

Of the total deaths, 21 are classified as brought-in-dead (BID) based on the Health Ministry’s CovidNow website.