KUALA LUMPUR (July 29): Malaysia reported 17,170 Covid-19 cases today — down a little from its record high of 17,405 yesterday — and 97.7% of these new infections show little or no symptoms.

The latest cases were detected from the screening of 150,495 individuals in the last 24 hours, indicating a positivity rate of 11.41%, according to Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdyullah in a statement today.

The Klang Valley recorded a total of 9,385 infections or 54.7% of the new cases — with  7,163 from Selangor, 2,138 from Kuala Lumpur, and 84 from Putrajaya — versus 58.1% of new cases yesterday.

Outside of the Klang Valley, Kedah led with 1,212 cases, followed by Johor (1,054), Negeri Sembilan (884), Sabah (776), Pahang (638), Kelantan (615), Perak (596), Sarawak (582), Penang (554), Terengganu (437), Melaka (416), Labuan (11) and Perlis (10).

Active cases that carry high transmission risks climbed further to a new high of 179,179 from 175,113 previously, as new infections continued to outpace daily recoveries — for a month now — of 12,930. Total recoveries now stand at 890,742 versus the country’s cumulative confirmed infections of 1.08 million.

The ministry also reported 174 more Covid-19 related fatalities today, which raised the tally so far to 8,725, up 66% from just 5,254 as of July 1.

According to Dr Noor Hisham, 16,787 cases or 97.7% of the new cases show little to no symptoms, as they fall under Categories 1 and 2. Only 383 cases fall under the more serious Categories of 3, 4 and 5.

The bulk of the new infections are among those who have had no history of vaccination. Below is the breakdown according to the severity of the cases:

-8,488 cases from Category 1 (no symptoms); 92.4% unvaccinated
-8,299 cases from Category 2 (mild symptoms); 75.6% unvaccinated
-198 cases from Category 3 (patients with pneumonia); 72.2% unvaccinated
-138 cases from Category 4 (pneumonia requiring oxygen therapy); 85.5% unvaccinated
-47 cases from category 5 (critical cases requiring assisted ventilation); 93.9% unvaccinated

There are now 1,043 Covid-19 patients in intensive care, including 531 needing ventilators to breathe.

The ministry said the country’s basic reproduction number for the coronavirus, the R0 (pronounced R-Naught), rose to 1.16 on July 28 from 1.14 the day before.

Terengganu had the highest R0 at 1.33, followed by Kelantan (1.26), Sabah (1.25), Penang (1.25), Kedah (1.22), Johor (1.19), Perak (1.18), Putrajaya (1.16), Kuala Lumpur (1.15) and Selangor (1.12).

The R0 projects the average number of people each new Covid-19 patient will infect — or what is termed the effective reproduction number. An R0 of less than 1.0 means the infection is not spreading.

Dr Noor Hisham said 36 new Covid-19 clusters were identified as of noon today, comprising 18 workplace clusters, 14 community clusters, three high risk-group clusters and a detention centre cluster.

To date, 3,604 clusters have been reported across the country, including 2,540 that have been declared ended.