Nearly 200 Omicron cases found in five-day stretch

PETALING JAYA: A total of 186 new cases of the Omicron variant were detected from Jan 14 to 18. This brought the accumulative number of cases involving variants of concern (VOCs) to 6,412.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said there were 5,726 cases involving Delta, 439 (Omicron), 233 (Beta) and 14 (Alpha).

As for variants of interest (VOIs), there were 20 cases: 13 were Theta cases, four (Kappa) and three (Eta).

In his daily Covid-19 statement, Dr Noor Hisham said that of the 3,245 new Covid-19 cases yesterday, 98.8% of them were in Categories 1 and 2, which meant that the patients were mostly asymptomatic or had mild symptoms.

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

He said Malaysia recorded 3,093 recoveries, which is 97.4% of the cumulative cases.

“A total of 183 cases were admitted to the intensive care unit (ICU), where 128 were confirmed Covid-19 cases while 55 were suspected cases and under probe.

“Among the ICU cases, 84 are on ventilator support,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said the national infectivity rate (R0) was now at 0.98 with four states having an R0 above 1.0.

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

The states with 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).

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

A total of 17 new clusters were recorded, which means that there are now 188 active clusters nationwide.

Dr Noor Hisham also said the last flood evacuation centre in Segamat, Johor, had been closed.

All the evacuees were allowed to go home by yesterday afternoon.

“All flood action centres under each state’s Health Department have been closed after the last one in Johor was closed on Sunday.

“No new Covid-19 infections have been reported among floods victims and the cumulative cases remain at 471.

“Also, there are no new infectious diseases reported,” he added.

Dr Noor Hisham reiterated his call for Malaysians to keep adhering to the standard operating procedure, including those who have received their vaccines.

He also said that more detailed data about the virus infection would be uploaded to the ministry’s CovidNow portal at midnight every day.