HE Health Ministry reported 3,543 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday (Jan 6), which marks an increase from the 3,270 cases recorded the previous day.
This brings the cumulative infections in the country to 2,776,699.
In a statement, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that of the new COVID-19 cases, 3,490 (98.5%) were mild and asymptomatic infections in Categories one and two, while the remaining 53 (1.5%) 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 0.97, with only Sabah (1.03) and Perlis (1.01) recording an R-naught exceeding 1.00.
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, 3,484 patients have recovered, bringing the total to 2,705,292.
There were 19 deaths, including four that were brought in dead (BID), thus bringing the death tally to 31,628.
Of the current cases, 253 cases required treatment in intensive care units (ICU) and 130 cases needed respiratory assistance. – Jan 7, 2022