KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia recorded an increasing trend in new Covid-19 cases for the third epidemiological week (ME 3/2022) from January 16 to 22, said Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
He said the number of new cases rose by 7.9% from 22,006 cases in ME 2/2022 (January 9 to 15) to 23,752 cases in ME 3/2022.
“The average number of active cases also increased by 2.4% from 39,507 cases (ME 2/2022) to 40,473 cases.
“However, the number of death cases showed a consistent drop of 19%, with 102 deaths in ME 3/2022 compared with 126 in ME 2/2022. This drop was recorded beginning ME 52/2021,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Dr Noor Hisham said cases requiring treatment in intensive care units (ICUs) also recorded a decline of 30.3% to 129 cases (ME 3/2022) from 182 cases in the previous epidemiological week.
As for cases requiring respiratory assistance, the figure dropped by 23.5% to 52 cases from 68 cases (ME 2/2022) and has been on the declining trend for the past 22 weeks, while the average infectivity rate or R-naught (Rt) increased by two% from 0.99 (ME 2/2022) to 1.01 (ME 3/2022).
In the meantime, Dr Noor Hisham said 88 new clusters were reported in ME 3/2022, of which 62 involved educational institutions, 18 involved workplaces (18), four involved high-risk groups, and one each were community, religious, import and detention centre clusters.
He said 3,214 new infections were recorded yesterday with 35 cases (1.1%) were in categories 3, 4 and 5 while the remaining 3,179 cases (98.9%) were in categories 1 and 2.
“Of the total new cases, 406 were imported cases while 2,808 were local infections. A total of 112 cases are being treated in ICUs with 40 cases requiring respiratory assistance,” he said. – Bernama, January 25, 2022
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