THE Health Ministry reported 3,490 new COVID-19 cases on Sunday (Dec 12), a decrease from the previous day’s 4,626 cases.
This brings the cumulative infections in the country to 2,691,639.
This is also the first time that the country’s number of fresh cases had dropped to under the 4,000 mark since May 2021.
In a statement, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that of the new COVID-19 cases, 3,421 (98%) were mild and asymptomatic infections in Categories one and two, while the remaining 69 (2%) 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.
However, several states still recorded an R-naught of 1.00 and above, namely Perlis (1.05), Melaka (1.03), Negri Sembilan (1.03), Penang (1.02), Johor (1.01), Pahang (1.01) and Terengganu (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, 5,399 patients have recovered, bringing the total to 2,601,908.
There were 17 deaths, including three that were brought in dead (BID), thus bringing the death tally to 30,879.
Of the current cases, 407 cases required treatment in intensive care units (ICU) and 216 cases needed respiratory assistance. – Dec 13, 2021
