THE Health Ministry reported 3,140 new COVID-19 cases on Tuesday (Dec 21), an increase from the previous day’s 2,589 cases.
This brings the cumulative infections in the country to 2,724,684.
In a statement, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that of the new COVID-19 cases, 3,076 (98.0%) were mild and asymptomatic infections in Categories one and two, while the remaining 64 (2.0%) 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 0.91.
However, several states still recorded an R-naught of 1.00 namely Pahang (1.00) and Penang (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, 4,278 patients have recovered, bringing the total to 2,642,469.
There were 57 deaths, including five that were brought in dead (BID), thus bringing the death tally to 31,192.
Of the current cases, 353 cases required treatment in intensive care units (ICU) and 189 cases needed respiratory assistance. – Dec 22, 2021
