KUALA LUMPUR, April 2 — Covid-19 cases in Malaysia remained below the 20,000 mark with 17,476 new infections reported in the last 24 hours. 

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in a statement this morning said the total cumulative cases since the start of the pandemic now stands at 4,219,395 cases.

He said 30 Covid-19 deaths including five cases that were classified as brought-in-dead (BID) cases were reported in the last 24 hours.

The death toll now stands at 35,013.

From the total new cases, he said 99.37 per cent or 17,365 cases were in categories one and two while less than one per cent, at 0.63 per cent, or 111 cases were in categories three, four and five.

Out of the 111 cases, 22 cases or 19.82 per cent were those who have not been vaccinated or fully vaccinated, 45 cases (40.54 per cent) have not received their booster doses, 44 cases (39.64 per cent) have received their booster doses, 62 cases (55.86 per cent) are above 60 years of age, 59 cases (53.15 per cent) have comorbidities and one case involved a pregnant mother.

He said a total of 17,321 recovered cases were recorded yesterday, bringing the cumulative recoveries to date to 3,977,403 or 94.3 per cent.

"Six new clusters were reported yesterday and there are a total of 194 clusters that are still active,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said a total of 897 Covid-19 cases were admitted into hospitals yesterday with 429 cases or 47.8 per cent in categories three, four and five and 468 cases or 52.2 per cent in categories one and two.

According to Dr Noor Hisham, the intensive care unit (ICU) usage in Wilayah Persekutuan is at 67 per cent.

"Two states recorded above 50 per cent usage of non-ICU beds, at 88 per cent in Wilayah Persekutuan and 64 per cent in Selangor,” he said.

He said the other states in the country recorded less than 50 per cent usage in their respective Covid-19 Low-Risk Treatment and Quarantine Centre (PKRC).

"Ventilator usage is at 18 per cent with the number of Covid-19 patients who need ventilators dropping to 162 patients,” he said.

A total of 263 cases were admitted into the ICU yesterday with 125 confirmed Covid-19 cases and 138 suspected or under investigation cases, he said.

The Covid-19 infectivity rate remained at 0.87 nationwide with Selangor recording the highest rate at 1.07 while Sabah had the lowest rate at 0.65.

* A previous version of this story contained an error which has since been corrected.