KUALA LUMPUR, March 23 — There were 21,483 new Covid-19 cases recorded in Malaysia yesterday, bringing the cumulative number of cases from when the pandemic began to 4,032,435.

Yesterday’s new cases marked an increase past the 20,000 mark, after two days in the opposite direction.

Meanwhile, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said 73 people were recorded as dead due to the disease, including 25 who died before reaching a hospital for treatment.

This brings the number of people who have died due to Covid-19 in the country to 34,535.

In regards to the categories of Covid-19 infection, 99.23 per cent (21,317) of the new cases yesterday were in Categories 1 and 2, meaning they were either asymptomatic or did not have worrying symptoms.

The remaining 0.77 per cent, or 166 cases were in Categories 3, 4 and 5 — denoting they had developed lung infections or worse.

At the same time, 32,561 patients recovered from the disease yesterday — leaving the number of active cases at 252,671.

There were 339 people in Covid-19 intensive care unit (ICU) beds nationwide, with 222 of them needing ventilator assistance.

The Covid-19 recovery rate in the country is at 92.4 per cent, while the national infectivity rate or Rt, is at 0.91.

Three states and Federal Territories were using more than 50 per cent of their Covid-19 ICU beds yesterday, namely Kuala Lumpur (70 per cent), Johor (62 per cent) and Selangor (60 per cent).

Nine states and Federal Territories were using more than or equal to 50 per cent of their non-ICU beds Covid-19 beds.

These being Selangor (89 per cent), Terengganu (75 per cent), Kuala Lumpur (74 per cent), Putrajaya (72 per cent), Melaka (65 per cent), Perak (61 per cent), Perlis (57 per cent), Sarawak (56 per cent) and Negri Sembilan (50 per cent)

As for Covid-19 quarantine centres, all states are currently using less than 50 per cent of the beds available.