Covid-19: Only 0.55% of 20,923 new cases in serious categories, says Health DG

PETALING JAYA: A total of 20,808 cases or 99.45% of the 20,923 new Covid-19 infections reported on Saturday (March 26) involved Categories 1 and 2, says Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

The Health director-general said only 115 cases, or 0.55%, were in Categories 3 to 5.

“The new cases reported on Saturday bring the cumulative number of cases to 4,122,004.

"There were 7,802 cases in Category 1 while Category 2 had 13,006 cases.

"A total of 44 cases, or 0.21%, were in Category 3, 26 cases (0.12%) in Category 4 and 45 cases (0.22%) in Category 5," he said in a statement Sunday (March 27).

He noted that of the 115 cases in the serious categories, 33 involved those who were not vaccinated or had not completed their vaccination; 48 cases were fully vaccinated but without booster shots; while 34 had also received the booster.

Dr Noor Hisham said 25,467 recoveries were reported on Saturday, taking the cumulative number to 3,844,766.

He said 302 cases required treatment at the intensive care unit (ICU) and 198 needed respiratory assistance.

According to Dr Noor Hisham, three new clusters were reported Saturday with 232 clusters still active to date.

He said the infectivity rate (Rt) in the country was at 0.93 on Saturday, with Selangor recording the highest value at 1.08 and Sabah the lowest at 0.64.

He said five states or territories showed more than 50% usage of ICU beds with the highest in Kuala Lumpur (70%), followed by Putrajaya (67%), Johor (59%), Penang and Selangor (57% each).