JOHOR BARU, Dec 4 — Johor’s hospitals can handle its current Covid-19 caseload and only three patients were in intensive care units as of Saturday, state health and unity committee chairman Ling Tian Soon said.

Ling said there were 41 Covid-19 patients being treated in hospitals in the state, while the year’s cumulative cases as of Saturday was 401,104.

"Out of the figure, 398,031 were local infections while the remaining 3,073 were imported cases. The reporting pattern for Covid-19 in Johor during the past few months does not show a sudden spike or increase in cases.

"The usage of Covid-19 beds is still below the 5 per cent rate,” Ling said in a statement today.

He was commenting on Johor reporting 497 Covid-19 cases from the XBB subvariant since Saturday.

Johor Baru reported the highest for the Covid-19 XBB subvariant at 274 cases, followed by Muar (59), Kulai (41), Batu Pahat (35), Kluang (25), Kota Tinggi (25), Pontian (18), Tangkak (16), Segamat (3) and Mersing (1).

Yesterday, it was reported that a total of 3,626 cases of Covid-19 were reported during the 47th epidemiology week (ME 47/2023).

From November 19 to 25, there was an increase of 57.3 per cent in Covid-19 cases, compared to the 2,305 cases recorded in the previous week.

Health director-general Datuk Dr Muhammad Radzi Abu Hassan reportedly said that in 48 per cent of cases involved those aged between 20 and 40, while over 98 per cent reported only mild symptoms.