KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — The country's daily Covid-19 cases continued to remain above the 6,000-mark, with the Ministry of Health recording 6,380 new transmissions as of noon today.

Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the total number of infections now stands at 2,569,533.

Yesterday, 6,288 new cases were recorded in a continuation of an uptrend that has spanned eleven days. Selangor topped the list with 1,615 cases.

In a statement later, Dr Noor Hisham said that of the new cases, only 98 or 1.5 per cent were in Categories 3, 4 and 5 that require hospitalisation.

"The remaining 6,282 cases are under Category 1 and 2 that do not require hospitalisation and those affected only need to be under home quarantine.

"There are currently 541 patients being treated in intensive care units (ICU), of which 452 have tested positive, while 89 more are suspected, probable or under investigation for Covid-19.

"Out of these 541, 263 need ventilators to help them breathe, including 169 who are confirmed to be positive for Covid-19,” he said.

He added that the new cases today are more than the number of Covid-19 patients who recovered, which totalled 5,760.

Dr Noor Hisham added that nine new Covid-19 clusters were also identified in the past 24 hours, bringing the number of active clusters in the country to 246.

Hospital admissions for Covid-19 in the country have been on the rise, increasing by 5 per cent in the last seven days compared to the preceding week.

Earlier today, the CovidNow portal showed that a total of 68 new Covid-19 fatalities were recorded yesterday, bringing the cumulative death toll to 6,036.

Of the number, 12 deaths were classified as "brought-in-dead”.