KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 5 — The number of new cases of Covid-19 decreased by 16.9 per cent to 15,549 cases in the 35th Epidemiological Week (ME 35/2022) from Aug 28 to Sept 3 compared to 18,715 in ME 34/2022.

Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said for the same period, 47 deaths were recorded, a decrease of 21.7 per cent compared to the previous week.

“The number of recovered cases in ME 35/2022 also dropped by 20.9 per cent, from 25,037 cases to 19,813 cases.

“The average number of active cases per day for ME 35/2022 was 31,333, which is a decrease of 13.4 per cent compared to the week before ,” he said in a statement today regarding the latest situation of Covid-19 infections in the country.

Admissions to hospitals and public Low-Risk Covid-19 Quarantine and Treatment Centres (PKRC) per 100,000 residents for patients in categories 1 and 2 saw a decrease of 9.4 per cent while for categories 3, 4 and 5 there was a decrease of 3.6 per cent in ME 35 /2022.

Dr Noor Hisham said occupancy of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds in ME 35/2022 increased by one per cent, non-critical beds decreased by one per cent while PKRC beds decreased by two per cent compared to ME 34/2022 In addition, he said the percentage of Covid-19 patients requiring respiratory assistance increased by 0.2 per cent in ME 35/2022 compared to ME 34/2022.

He added that positive cases monitored by Covid-19 Assessment Centres (CAC) across the country also showed a decrease.

“The number of patient arrivals to CAC decreased by 21.4 per cent, new cases that required monitoring at home decreased by 18.7 per cent while cases referred by CAC to hospitals decreased by 24.9 per cent,” he said.

He said the results of surveillance of Covid-19 at sentinel locations across the country found that a total of 101 Influenza Like Illness (ILI) samples tested positive for Covid-19 at a rate of 15.0 per cent while Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) samples testing positive for Covid-19 was 1.6 per cent. — Bernama