Covid-19: ICU usage in a few states at more than 50%

GEORGE TOWN: Critical Covid-19 cases in intensive care units (ICUs) have increased to more than 50% in a few states in the country.

The ICU usage in Johor (70%), Perlis (64%) and Federal Territory Kuala Lumpur (59%), while non-critical ICU bed usage in Johor and Perak has hit more than 100%.

Health Ministry director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the usage of ventilators had increased to 132 patients, with 36% using the equipment.

He said the hospitals in the state could cope with the rise in the Covid-19 cases as well as non-Covid-19 cases.

"However most of the states have contingency plans to handle the situation if the cases rise to a critical stage.

"There were a total of 6,692 clusters with 16 new clusters, 6,206 clusters have ceased and 486 active ones.

He added that of the 27,808 new cases reported 103 (0.37%) were of categories 3, 4 and 5 and 27,705 (99.63%) from categories 1 and 2.

"Of the 168 new cases involving variants of concern (VOC) reported from Feb 13 to Feb 18, 33 cases were of Delta variant and 136 of Omicron.

To date, there are 6,537 cases of Delta, 960 of Omicron, 233 of Beta and 14 of Alpha.