THE Health Ministry reported 2,842 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday (Jan 4), which marks a slight increase from the 2,690 cases recorded the previous day.
This brings the cumulative infections in the country to 2,769,886.
In a statement, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that of the new COVID-19 cases, 2,795 (98.3%) were mild and asymptomatic infections in Categories one and two, while the remaining 47 (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, with only Kelantan (1.00) and Johor (1.00) recording an R-naught of 1.00 and above.
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, 2,862 patients have recovered, bringing the total to 2,698,613.
There were 31 deaths, including nine that were brought in dead (BID), thus bringing the death tally to 31,591.
Of the current cases, 252 cases required treatment in intensive care units (ICU) and 134 cases needed respiratory assistance. – Jan 5, 2022
