KUALA LUMPUR, March 28 — Sunday’s Covid-19 cases dropped to 16,863, reflecting the low rate of testing typical of weekends, but daily transmissions in the country have continued their downward trend since cases first breached the 30,000 mark earlier this month.

Only 299 cases were severe, the Ministry of Health reported today, with half of them confirmed as Covid-19 cases while 151 cases were still under investigation. From the 299 patients, 187 needed breathing support, a slight increase.

The rest were Category 1 and 2 cases, with the first making up 51 per cent and category two 48.1 per cent of March 27’s total cases.

A total of 850 people had to be hospitalised on March 27, with 42.6 per cent consisting of Category 3, 4 and 5 cases. The rest are Category 1 and 2 cases that have risk of deterioration.

There were 37 reported deaths including brought-in-dead cases, according to the Ministry of Health’s CovidNow website.

Over 26,000 had been either discharged or have recovered within the same period.

As reported daily cases show a steady decline, so have critical bed usage and hospitalisation as nearly all the adult and children population have received at least two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine.

Just two states recorded ICU bed usage of more than 50 per cent — Kuala Lumpur (63 per cent) and Selangor (52 per cent).

For regular bed use, five states recorded a rate of more than half the capacity — Putrajaya (87 per cent), Selangor (73 per cent), Kuala Lumpur (56 per cent), Terengganu (53 per cent), and Melaka (51 per cent).

Meanwhile Selangor, the country’s industrial heart and the most populous region, remains the only state to have an infectivity rate (Rt) of over 1.