KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 7 — A total of 26,616 new Covid-19 cases were recorded in the 44th Epidemiological Week (ME 44/2022) from October 30 to November 5, an increase of 57.3 per cent over the 16,917 cases in the previous week, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said local Covid-19 cases rose by 57.4 per cent to 26,577 cases from 16,890 cases in ME43.

"Imported cases too increased by 44.4 per cent from 27 cases to 39 cases.

"The number of deaths in ME 44 increased by 45 per cent, from 20 to 29 cases,” he said in a statement today.

He said the average number of daily active cases in ME 44 was 33,449 compared to 28,252 cases, an 18.4 per cent increase from the previous week.

Dr Noor Hisham said between January 25, 2020 and November 5, 2022, cumulatively, 923,538 new cases and 4,850,491 recoveries were recorded.

The fatalities recorded during this period totalled 36,493 and there were 7,104 clusters with 21 clusters still active.

The admission of Covid-19 patients to hospitals and Low-Risk Covid-19 Treatment Centres per 100,000 population saw an overall increase by 26.1 per cent.

He said admissions for categories one and two, which are asymptomatic and symptomatic increased by 39.4 per cent while those for categories three, four and five were up 37.4 per cent.

Following the increase in Covid-19 cases as well as hospital admissions and reports of Omicron XBB subvariant cases in several states, Dr Noor Hisham advised the public to take preventive measures by wearing a face mask and getting the Covid-19 vaccine or booster dose. — Bernama