KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 18 — Malaysia logged 3,245 new Covid-19 infections on Thaipusam today, an increase of 903 cases from the previous day’s figure.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this brings the cumulative number of Covid-19 cases nationwide to 2,813,934.

In his daily statement, Dr Noor Hisham revealed that 183 individuals required intensive care treatment, of which 128 were confirmed Covid-19 cases and the remaining 55 under investigation.

“Of the 183, a total of 84 require breathing assistance,” he said.

The number of recoveries did not surpass today’s new cases, however, with 3,093 people fully recovered.

Of the new cases reported, Dr Noor Hisham said 39 or 1.2 per cent were in Categories 3, 4 and 5 that required hospitalisation.

Today’s infection involved 2,882 Malaysians with 89 cases detected among non-locals, and 274 more imported cases.

Apart from that, another 17 new clusters were registered today, for a combined total of 188 active clusters currently.

Dr Noor Hisham also said the nationwide Covid-19 infectivity rate — denoted as R-naught, R0 or Rt — was at 0.98, with Kuala Lumpur the highest at 1.06, followed by Negri Sembilan at 1.05, Sabah, Melaka at 1.04 and Selangor at 1.00.

Perlis, Labuan, Putrajaya and Sarawak recorded a zero Rt value.

As for Covid-19 cases detected among displaced flood victims, Dr Noor Hisham said the figure remained unchanged at 471 cases.

Omicron infections in the country

He also gave the latest update on the highly infectious Omicron variant of concern (VOC), with 186 new cases detected between January 14 and January 18.

For the above period, Selangor saw 41 new Omicron cases, followed by Sarawak at 26 and Johor at 20.

The remaining were reported in Kuala Lumpur at 17 cases, 16 in Perak, 12 in Negri Sembilan, nine for both Kelantan and Pahang, eight in Kedah, seven in Terengganu, five in Melaka, Penang and Sabah, four in Labuan and one in Putrajaya and Perlis.

A total of 439 Omicron cases have been reported nationwide to date, 385 of which were imported.