KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 7): Malaysia reported 18,547 new Covid-19 cases today, up 6.89% from the 17,352 reported yesterday, according to Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
The latest cases were discovered from 156,903 individuals tested across the country in the past 24 hours, indicating a positivity rate of 11.82%.
Sarawak still remained the worst-hit state with 3,200 cases followed by Selangor (2,407), Johor (2,174), Sabah (2,107), Penang (1,776), Kedah (1,487), Kelantan (1,458) and Perak (1,197).
These were followed by Pahang (742), Terengganu (645), Kuala Lumpur (631), Melaka (448), Negeri Sembilan (229), Putrajaya (22), Perlis (20) and Labuan (four).
Also reported were 311 more deaths today, including 93 brought-in-dead (BID) cases involving 68 Malaysians and 25 foreigners.
These raised the total fatalities linked to the coronavirus so far to 18,802, said Dr Noor Hisham in a statement.
Number of active cases which carry high transmission risks continued its downward trend for one straight week to 252,002 today — as daily recoveries came in higher than infections at 18,902 today — compared with last Tuesday's active cases of 267,863.
Total recoveries now stand at 1.61 million, or 85.6% of the 1.88 million cumulative infections detected.
Meanwhile, there are now 977 patients in intensive care units, including 447 who need ventilators to breathe.
98.34% of latest cases have little to no symptoms
Dr Noor Hisham said a total of 18,239 or 98.34% of new cases reported today have had no symptoms (Category 1 patients) or only mild symptoms (Category 2). Of these, 8,088 or 44.4% were unvaccinated, 6,063 patients or 33.2% were fully vaccinated while 4,088 patients (22.4%) were partially vaccinated.
The remaining 308 cases were in Category 3 (patients with pneumonia), Category 4 (patients with pneumonia requiring oxygen therapy) and Category 5 (critical patients requiring assisted ventilation).
Of the patients in these categories, 54.5% were unvaccinated (168), 71 cases or 23.1% were partially vaccinated, while 69 cases (22.4%) were fully vaccinated.
39 more clusters identified with 1,358 total infections
The ministry also identified 39 more clusters with a total of 1,358 infections found among them. These included 23 workplace clusters, 13 community clusters, one high-risk group cluster, one education cluster, and one detention cluster.
To date, 4,960 clusters have been reported nationwide, including 3,495 that have been declared ended, leaving 1,465 active ones.