KUALA LUMPUR, March 20 — Malaysia logged 22,341 new Covid-19 infections over the past 24 hours, including 85 deaths.

This brings the total number of Covid-19 cases recorded in the country since the start of the pandemic to 3,974,019.

In a statement this morning, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said that 524 of the new cases were imported and involved 497 Malaysians and 27 foreigners. 

Of the 85 deaths, 23 were classified as brought-in-dead (BID) cases. The death toll now stands at 34,329.

Those requiring intensive care units (ICU) treatments nationwide stood at 390 people, with 160 confirmed to have Covid-19 while the remaining 230 either suspected, probable or under investigation for the disease.

Of that, Dr Noor Hisham said that 219 of them needed ventilator assistance, of which 94 are Covid-19 positive patients.

"From the 22,341 daily cases reported on March 19, only 0.68 per cent or 153 cases are in categories 3, 4 and 5 ― which require hospitalisation, while the remainder 99.32 per cent are in categories 1 and 2,” he said.

He added that 96 patients out of the 153 who had more serious symptoms of the coronavirus were above age 60, and that 72 had comorbidities.

He also said that 33,347 patients have recovered from Covid-19 in the last 24 hours, bringing the total cumulative amount of recovery in the country to 3,656,415.

On ICU bed usages by state, 11 states or federal territories are using more than 50 per cent of the capacity.

In the lead is Malaysia’s smallest state Perlis at 79 per cent, followed by Kuala Lumpur (77 per cent), and Kelantan (73 per cent).

Six other states were in the 60 percentile. They are: Johor (69 per cent), Selangor (66 per cent), Perak (64 per cent), Sarawak (62 per cent), Sabah and Penang (61 per cent).

Terengganu recorded 57 per cent and Pahang (52 per cent) for ICU bed use.

Dr Noor Hisham said six new clusters were reported yesterday, bringing the total active clusters in the country to 316.

Malaysia’s Covid-19 infectivity rate (R-nought or R0) is now at 0.92.