KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 24 — A total of 14,525 new Covid-19 cases were recorded in the 42nd Epidemiological Week (ME 42/2022) from October 16-22, an increase of 21.5 per cent over the 11,957 cases in the previous week, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

"Local Covid-19 cases rose by 21.6 per cent to 14,493 cases from 11,916 cases,” he said in a statement today.

However, imported cases in ME 42 dropped by 22 per cent, to 32 cases from 41 cases in ME 41.

The number of deaths in ME 42 increased by 70.6 per cent, from 17 to 29 cases, while recoveries dropped 0.9 per cent, to 11,078 cases compared to 11,180 cases in ME 41.

Dr Noor Hisham said the average number of daily active cases in ME 42 was 24,867, a 9.4 per cent drop from the previous week.

He said between January 25, 2020 and October 22, 2022, a total of 4,880,005 cumulative new cases and 4,816,278 recoveries were recorded.

The fatalities registered during this period totalled 36,444 while there were 7,087 clusters, with eight clusters still active.

Dr Noor Hisham said the admission of Covid-19 patients to hospitals and Low-Risk Covid-19 Treatment Centres per 100,000 population rose by 6.9 per cent in ME 42.

Admissions for categories one and two increased by18.2 per cent while those for categories three, four and five were up 9.5 per cent.

Dr Noor Hisham also wished Hindus a Happy Deepavali and reminded the public to continue observing the new normal by wearing face masks in crowded and narrow places. — Bernama