KUALA LUMPUR, April 20 — The Health Ministry (MoH) announced that 6,069 new daily Covid-19 cases were reported yesterday.

This represents a significant drop from the previous day’s 7,140 new infections and continues a downward trend that began last week.

In a statement, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said cumulative infections now stand at 4,402,234 since the start of the pandemic in 2020.

According to the CovidNow website, another 12 lives were lost to Covid-19 yesterday, of which one was categorised as brought-in-dead (BID).

To date, the coronavirus has claimed 35,449 lives nationwide since the pandemic began.

Dr Noor Hisham also disclosed that only 45 or 0.74 per cent of cases reported yesterday were in Categories 3, 4 and 5 that required hospitalisation. He said the rest of the cases reported only mild symptoms.

"There are currently 97 patients being treated in intensive care units (ICU), of which 38 are suspected, probable or under investigation for Covid-19.

"Out of these 97, 64 need ventilators to help them breathe, including 36 who are confirmed as Covid-19 positive,” he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said no state is currently using more than 50 per cent of its ICU bed capacity.

Similarly, he added that no state has over 50 per cent occupancy at their respective low-risk Covid-19 quarantine centres.

Dr Noor Hisham said only 64 Covid-19 patients now are in need of respiratory aid.

Overall, he said the current percentage of ventilator use stands at 8 per cent for patients with Covid-19.

Dr Noor Hisham also said five Covid-19 clusters were detected by the MoH in the past 24 hours, resulting in 109 clusters that are currently active.

The Covid-19 infectivity rate (R-naught or R0) is now at 0.86 nationwide, with Seremban recording the highest rate at 0.90.