THE Health Ministry reported 5,020 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday (Dec 8), an increase from the previous day’s 4,965 cases.
This brings the cumulative infections in the country to 2,673,019.
This is also the first time in four days that the number of cases had passed the 5,000 mark.
In a statement, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that of the new COVID-19 cases, 4,933 (98.3%) were mild and asymptomatic infections in Categories one and two, while the remaining 87 (1.7%) were from Categories three, four and five.
Categories one and two refer to patients with mild symptoms or none at all, category three refers to patients with pneumonia, while patients in categories four and five require oxygen and need ventilators, respectively.
As of yesterday, the national R-naught for COVID-19 is 0.99.
However, several states still recorded an R-naught of 1.00 and above, namely Perlis (1.13), WP Labuan (1.06), Melaka (1.03), Penang (1.03), Negri Sembilan (1.01) and Pahang (1.00).
Sarawak recorded the lowest R-naught of 0.71.
An R-naught of 1.00 suggests an outbreak that has plateaued, while a figure above that indicates an outbreak that is accelerating its growth.
Meanwhile, according to the CovidNow website, 4,525 patients have recovered, bringing the total to 2,581,395.
There were 28 deaths, including four that were brought in dead (BID), thus bringing the death tally to 30,746.
Of the current cases, 428 cases required treatment in intensive care units (ICU) and 237 cases needed respiratory assistance. – Dec 9, 2021
