COVID-19: Slight decrease in new cases, national R-naught at 0.98

THE Health Ministry reported 4,262 new COVID-19 cases on Monday (Dec 6), a slight decrease from the previous day’s 4,298 cases.

This brings the cumulative infections in the country to 2,663,034.

In a statement, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that of the new COVID-19 cases, 4,184 (98.2%) were mild and asymptomatic infections in Categories one and two, while the remaining 78 (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 0.98.

However, several states still recorded an R-naught of 1.00 and above, namely Perlis (1.12), Melaka (1.04), Perak (1.01) and Kedah (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, 5,894 patients have recovered, bringing the total to 2,572,053.

There were 38 deaths, including 8 that were brought in dead (BID), thus bringing the death tally to 30,652.

Of the current cases, 463 cases required treatment in intensive care units (ICU) and 249 cases needed respiratory assistance. – Dec 7, 2021

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