THE Health Ministry reported 3,519 new COVID-19 cases on Wednesday (Dec 22), an increase from the previous day’s 3,140 cases.
This brings the cumulative infections in the country to 2,728,203.
In a statement, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that of the new COVID-19 cases, 3,454 (98.2%) were mild and asymptomatic infections in Categories one and two, while the remaining 65 (1.8%) 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 0.90 with only two states (Pahang and Penang) reporting an R-naught of 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, 5,118 patients have recovered, bringing the total to 2,647,587.
There were 29 deaths, including six that were brought in dead (BID), thus bringing the death tally to 31,221.
Of the current cases, 338 cases required treatment in intensive care units (ICU) and 186 cases needed respiratory assistance. – Dec 23, 2021
