KUALA LUMPUR: New Covid-19 cases surged to 17,134 today, with majority of the infections classified as Category Two cases.
The sharp spike, triggered by the Omicron variant, has also pushed the country's cumulative cases to 2,956,332.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said most of the new cases (12,326 cases) were from Category Two that showed mild symptoms, followed by Category One infections (4,722 cases) that were asymptomatic.
The remaining 86 cases were made up of Categories Three (58 cases), Four (24 cases) and Five (four cases) infections.
Category Three cases suffer from lung infections, while Category Four cases require oxygen aid, in addition to having lung infections.
Category Five infections must be placed on ventilator support as Covid-19 infections also damage internal organs of patients in this category.
Dr Noor Hisham said the national Covid-19 infectivity rate (Rt) also rose to 1.39 from 1.32 on Tuesday.
He said Sarawak reported the highest infectivity rate (1.68), followed by Perlis (1.65), Sabah (1.59), Labuan (1.51), and Terengganu (1.40).
Of the total new cases, 130 of them were imported (73 Malaysians and 57 foreigners), he said.
"There are 143 patients being treated at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU), with 83 of them confirmed Covid-19 cases and 60 patients either suspected, potential or under investigation.
"Seventy-eight patients are on ventilator support (35 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 43 others either suspected, potential or under investigation)," he said in a statement today.
He said 5,681 recoveries were reported today (cumulative 2,829,752 or 95.7 per cent of the overall cases).
Dr Noor Hisham said 15 new Covid-19 clusters were detected nationwide, bringing the tally to 6,541.
There were currently 385 active clusters in the country, he added.
He said 280 new Variant of Concen (VOC) cases were reported between Feb 3 and 9, comprised 185 Delta variant cases and 95 Omicron variant cases.
"Integrative Pharmacogenomics Institute, Universiti Teknologi MARA (iPromise, UiTM) has identified 188 new cases, UKM Medical Molecular Biology Institute (UMBI) identified 46 new cases, while Institute for Medical Research (IMR) reported 46 new cases.
"This brings the cumulative cases for SARS-CoV-2 infections categorised as VOC and Variant of Interest (VOI) to 7,398."
Of the total, 7,378 cases were VOC (among them are 6,435 Delta variant and 696 Omicron variant cases) and 20 others VOI, he said.
Other VOC were Beta (233 cases) and Alpha (14 cases).
Meanwhile, VOI identified in Malaysia were Theta (13 cases), Kappa (four) and Eta (three).