KUALA LUMPUR, June 20 — Malaysia's fight against the Covid-19 threat over the past two years since the pandemic began saw a significant improvement last night.

"Today, for the first time since 18th December 2020, Malaysia will be reporting 0 deaths due to Covid-19,” Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin posted on Twitter late last night.

He attributed the success to the government's calibrated and data-driven strategies.

"Let us pray it continues paying off,” he added.

The country's new infections also continued its decline with the Health Ministry recording 1,690 cases and zero clusters as of midnight.

Statistics on the ministry's CovidNow website showed that the total active cases in the country is now down to 25,944, with 96 per cent of infected people having symptoms mild enough that they need only quarantine at home.

Of those admitted to hospital, 23 are in intensive care units (ICU) and 15 require ventilation assistance.

The utilisation rate of ICU for Covid-19 patients is 5.2 per cent, while hospital occupancy rate for Covid-19 patients is 13.9 per cent.

Currently, there are only four active clusters nationwide that are scattered throughout the Klang Valley, Kedah, and Kelantan.

In Malaysia to date, a total of 35,732 people have died from Covid-19 since the pandemic began in 2020.

Increases for Epidemiological Week 24 (June 12-18)

In a separate statement this morning, Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah noted an increase of Covid-19 patients admitted into public hospitals.

He said that there was a 4 per cent increase for every 100,000 people in the country for Epidemiological Week 24 compared to the previous week.

He said the increase in hospitalisation was mostly for patients with milder symptoms; those under Category 1 and 2 were up to 17 per cent.

In contrast, those warded with more severe symptoms — classified under Categories 3, 4, and 5 — went down to 8 per cent.

Dr Noor Hisham also noted an increase in the number of infections in the country to 27.9 per cent in this epidemiological week, which he attributed to local cases.

In contrast, the number of infections from abroad saw a 60 per cent drop compared to Epidemiological Week 23. Only six import cases were recorded in this epidemiological week compared to 24 the previous week.

Currently, Malaysia's infectivity rate (Rt) has gone up to 1.08 compared to 0.96 in the previous epidemiological week.

As of today, Malaysia's cumulative Covid-19 cases since the pandemic broke out totals 4,538,922.

The cumulative number of recoveries is 4,476,829 people while 25,944 people are still in treatment.