Another 162 Omicron cases detected, says Health DG

PETALING JAYA: A total of 162 Omicron cases were detected in the country in the past 24 hours.

In his daily Covid-19 update yesterday, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the Institute of Medical Research identified 89 new cases, the University of Malaya Faculty of Medicine 71 new cases and the Malaysia Genome and the Vaccine Institute two new cases.

“All of these cases are the Omicron variants. This brings the cumulative number of cases to 6,188 cases for Delta variant, 601 cases of Omicron variant, 233 Beta variant and 14 Alpha variant,” said Dr Noor Hisham, adding that over the same comparison period, a total of 13 new clusters were identified, bringing the tally to 244 active clusters in Malaysia.

“Another 4,066 new Covid-19 cases were recorded for a cumulative total of 2,840,225,” said Dr Noor Hisham.

Of that number, 442 are imported and the rest local, with 131 cases requiring treatment in intensive care units.

He also said 3,559 patients had recovered.

“Out of the 4,066 new cases, 4,016 are Categories 1 and 2, and the rest in Categories 3, 4 and 5,” he added.

On the infectivity rate, Dr Noor Hisham said the national R-naught rate stood at 1.09, with 11 states and territories recording a rate of 1.0 and above.

These were Negri Sembilan (1.16), Kedah (1.09), Johor (1.09), Kuala Lumpur (1.07), Melaka (1.04), Putrajaya (1.04), Selangor (1.04), Penang (1.03), Pahang (1.01), Kelantan (1.0) and Perak (1.0).

Perlis, Sarawak and Labuan were the lowest on the chart, with a zero infectivity rate recorded.

Meanwhile, 10,906,259 individuals or 46.6% of adults in the country have received the Covid-19 booster dose, according to the Health Ministry’s CovidNow portal, which stated that 197,765 booster doses were administered on Monday.

A total of 22,917,313 individuals or 97.9% of the adult population have completed their vaccination, while 23,195,017 individuals or 99.1% of the group have received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine.

For adolescents aged 12 to 17, 2,782,131 individuals or 88.4% have completed their vaccination while 2,864,738 individuals or 91% received at least one dose of the vaccine.