KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 17 — The Health Ministry (MoH) announced 6,145 new Covid-19 cases today.

The latest numbers see a decrease of 1,248 cases compared to the 7,393 new infections recorded yesterday.

This brings the total number of Covid-19 cases in the country, since the start of the pandemic, to 2,390,687.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah also disclosed that that only 142 or 2.3 per cent of the cases reported today were in categories 3, 4 and 5 that required hospitalisation, while the remaining 97.7 per cent were in categories 1 and 2.

"There are currently 682 patients being treated in intensive care units (ICU), of which 42 are suspected, probable or under investigation for Covid-19.

"Out of these 682, 350 need ventilators to help them breathe including 281 who are confirmed to be positive for Covid-19,” he said.

He added that nine new clusters were also detected over the past 24 hours, bringing the total number of active clusters in the country to 676.

"Of the nine new clusters, six are related to workplaces, two are from community transmissions, and one involving a high-risk group,” he said.

He said that Malaysia’s rate of infection currently stands at 0.88, with Putrajaya being the state with the highest infectivity rate, which stands at 1.06.

Labuan was the only state or federal territory in Malaysia to have a 0 infectivity rate.