KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 — The Health Ministry has recorded 3,589 Covid-19 cases as of midnight, marking three consecutive days of new infections in the country standing north of 3,000 before Hari Raya Haji celebrations tomorrow.

Although yesterday’s cases are a drop from the 4,020 recorded the day before, the last time cases were back-to-back higher than 3,000 was from May 11 to May 13.

The ministry also recorded six new deaths from the coronavirus, including two who lost their lives before reaching a hospital.

Selangor and Kuala Lumpur had the most new infections as of midnight, recording 1,261 and 1,083 cases respectively on the ministry's CovidNow website.

In terms of fatalities for the past two weeks, Penang has the highest death rate at 51 deaths per 10 million people, while Putrajaya had the highest infection rate at 82 infections per 10,000 people.

Active Covid-19 cases currently number 36,557, with 96.3 per cent — or 33,888 of them undergoing home quarantine.

Those placed at the Covid-19 Quarantine and Treatment Centres nationwide total 27.

A total of 1,241 Covid-19 patients are under treatment in hospitals, with 25 warded in intensive care units (ICUs).

Of those in ICUs, 17 are under ventilator support.

To note, the nationwide hospitalisation rate dropped by 3 per cent in the past week — with 67.9 per cent of hospital beds used as of yesterday.

The ministry also recorded 2,224 new recoveries.

On July 4, the ministry put out a public advisory about two new sub-variants — Omicron BA.4 and Omicron BA.5 — that are said to be the most infectious of the Omicron strain.

Omicron BA.5 has been detected in Malaysia, and is likely to spread Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin announced in a news conference yesterday, adding that BA.4 has yet to be recorded in the country.