KUALA LUMPUR, April 17 — The Health Ministry (MoH) today reported 9,705 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, a slight increase from the 9,673 cases recorded yesterday.
This brings cumulative infections to 4,382,402 from the time Covid-19 arrived in the country in 2020, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement.
He also announced that 14,346 people recovered from Covid-19 yesterday, raising cumulative recovered cases to 4,238,471.
The number of people who died of the coronavirus similarly showed a slight decrease to 12 compared to the 16 recorded the previous day. Of today’s new fatalities on record, six were categorised as brought in dead (BID).
As of today, a total of 35,409 people have died of the coronavirus since the start of the pandemic.
Dr Noor Hisham also disclosed that only 49 or 0.5 per cent of cases reported today were in Categories 3, 4 and 5 that required hospitalisation. He said the rest of the cases reported only mild symptoms.
“There are currently 134 patients being treated in intensive care units (ICU), of which 62 are suspected, probable or under investigation for Covid-19.
“Out of these 134, 81 need ventilators to help them breathe, including 44 who are confirmed as Covid-19 positive,” he said.
In the statement, Dr Noor Hisham said no state is currently using more than 50 per cent of its ICU bed capacity.
Putrajaya is the only state that is currently using more than 50 per cent of its non-ICU beds at 53 per cent.
As for Covid-19 quarantine centres, Perak the only state currently has more than 50 per cent of their beds utilised at 56 per cent.
Dr Noor Hisham said the number of Covid-19 patients in need of respiratory aid has decreased to 81 people.
Overall, he said the current percentage of ventilator use stands at 9 per cent for both patients with Covid-19 and those without.
Dr Noor Hisham also said 10 Covid-19 clusters were detected by the MoH in the past 24 hours, resulting in 116 clusters that are currently active.
