KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia yesterday recorded 28,825 Covid-19 cases, a new daily tally record since the pandemic broke in 2020.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the cumulative coronavirus cases were now at 3,194,825.
He said of the new infections, 99.67 per cent or 28,730 cases were under Categories 1 and 2 while the remaining 95 cases were under Categories 3, 4 and 5.
"Some 70 per cent (20,318) of yesterday's cases were under Category 2; 29.18 per cent (8,412 cases) were asymptomatic; 0.2 per cent (59 cases) were under Category 3; 0.08 per cent (22 cases) were under Category 4 and 0.05 per cent (14 cases) were under Category 5," he said in a statement today.
The highest daily infections in the country previously was 27,831 that was reported on Wednesday, Feb 16.
"Of the 95 cases that were under Categories 3, 4 and 5, more than half of the cases have received two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, 28 cases were unvaccinated or only received one dose while 18 cases have received booster shots.
"Also, 48 of the cases had comorbidities and 41 of the cases were aged 60 and above."
Data on CovidNow showed that active cases continued to climb to 243,342 with almost 95 per cent of the cases (230,491) undergoing home quarantine, three per cent receiving treatment at hospitals, 2.2 per cent at wCovid-19 quarantine and treatment centres (PKRC) while 238 cases were treated at intensive care units (ICU) of which 130 are ventilated.
Dr Noor Hisham said 29 per cent of ICU beds for Covid-19 cases are used. Johor, Kuala Lumpur and Kelantan were at the tops with 70 per cent, 64 per cent and 50 per cent of ICU beds utilised.
States with hospital beds at or above 50 per cent utilisation rates increased from eight on Friday to 10 yesterday.
The states are Selangor with 95 per cent utilisation rate, Kelantan (93 per cent), Putrajaya (92 per cent), Perlis (90 per cent), Sabah and Johor (82 per cent), Kuala Lumpur (72 per cent), Perak (70 per cent), Pahang (55 per cent) and Penang (50 per cent).
PKRC beds in eight states were at or above 50 per cent utilisation rate, namely Selangor, Terengganu, Sabah, Perak, Melaka, Negri Sembilan, Perlis and Kelantan.
He said yesterday, 1,521 Covid-19 cases were admitted while 1,246 cases were discharged.
He also explained that daily admissions may vary from the reported daily total for each category as patients' conditions were dynamic.
"A patient's condition may deteriorate or improve over time. For example, a patient maybe at Category 2A when first diagnosed and isolated at home under the Home Surveillance Order, but later need treatment at hospital if conditions worsen.
"At the same time, high-risk Categories 1 and 2 cases will also be admitted to PKRC or hospitals as part of pre-emptive actions."
Meanwhile, 34 new Covid-19 fatalities were reported yesterday, taking the death toll to 32,310.
Of the fatalities, 12 were brought-in-dead cases, including four who were in Categories 3, 4, and 5.