Covid-19 Watch: 186 new Omicron cases between Jan 14 and 18, says Health D-G

PETALING JAYA: A total of 186 new Omicron variant cases were reported between Jan 14 and Tuesday (Jan 18), says Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said that this brought the number of Covid-19 variant of concern (VOC) cases to 6,412 and added 20 more variant of interest (VOI) cases.

Dr Noor Hisham said that to date, the VOC involved 5,726 cases of the Delta variant, 493 Omicron, 233 cases involving the Beta variant and 14 Alpha cases.

As for VOI, he said that 13 were of the Theta variant while four were of Kappa and three were Eta.

Dr Noor Hisham said that of the 3,245 new Covid-19 cases on Tuesday, 3,206 cases or 98.8% of them were mild and asymptomatic infections in Categories 1 and 2.

The rest of 1.2% or 39 cases were in Categories 3, 4 and 5.

In his daily Covid-19 statement, he said Malaysia recorded 3,093 recoveries or 97.4% of the cumulative cases.

"A total of 183 cases are being treated in the intensive care unit (ICU), where 128 are confirmed Covid-19 cases while 55 are suspected cases and under probe. Among the ICU cases, 84 are on ventilator support," he said.

Dr Noor Hisham noted that the national infectivity rate (R0) is now at 0.98 with four states having a R0 above 1.0.

They are Kuala Lumpur (1.06), Negri Sembilan (1.05), Sabah (1.04) and Melaka (1.04).

The states with a R0 of 1.0 and below are Selangor (1.0), Johor (0.99), Kedah (0.97), Penang and Pahang (0.95), Perak (0.94), Kelantan (0.90) and Terengganu (0.78).

For Perlis, Labuan, Putrajaya and Sarawak, the R0 is zero.

He added that there are 17 new clusters, meaning that there are 188 nationwide.

Dr Noor Hisham also said the last flood evacuation centre in Segamat, Johor, has been closed and all victims were allowed to go home as at 3pm on Tuesday (Jan 18).

"All flood action centres under each state's Health Department have been closed after the last one in Johor was closed on Jan 16. No new Covid-19 infections have been reported among flood victims and the cumulative cases remain at 471," he said.

"Also,no new cases of infectious diseases have been reported," he added.