‘MOSTLY ASYMPTOMATIC, MILD CASES’
98.5pc out of 12,541 new cases yesterday are Categories 1 and 2 patients, says Dr Noor Hisham
MOST new Covid-19 infections recorded yesterday were Category 1 and 2 patients who showed no common symptoms or mild symptoms.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said out of the 12,541 new cases reported yesterday, 98.5 per cent, or 12,352 cases, were from the two categories.
“There are 6,504 Category 1 patients, or 51.9 per cent, who did not display any Covid-19 symptoms and 5,848 cases, or 46.6 per cent, in Category 2 who showed mild symptoms.
“Eighty-six patients, or 0.7 per cent, in Category 3 had pneumonia and 49 patients, or 0.4 per cent, in Category 4 had pneumonia and needed oxygen therapy.
“There are 54 patients, or 0.4 per cent, in Category 5 who are in critical condition and require breathing assistance.”
He said 141,523 Covid-19 tests were conducted in the country up to Thursday, involving 65,822 reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction and 75,701 Antigen Rapid Test Kit tests.
“Selangor carried out 52,889 tests, while Kuala Lumpur conducted 18,369 tests.
“We are capable of conducting more tests by including more private laboratories. This is best for Covid-19 targeted screening.”
Selangor contributed the highest number of cases yesterday at 5,512, followed by Negri Sembilan and Kuala Lumpur with 1,619 and 1,542 cases, respectively.
Ten states reported a three-digit rise in cases — 609 in Johor, 575 in Melaka, 458 in Kedah. 423 in Sarawak, 382 in Pahang, 376 in Penang, 326 in Sabah, 299 in Perak, 225 in Kelantan and 102 in Terengganu.
Putrajaya and Labuan recorded 62 and 24 new cases, respectively.
Perlis saw seven new cases, up from three cases on Thursday.
Dr Noor Hisham said the country recorded 6,742 recoveries and 115 deaths yesterday.
“A total of 91 patients died at hospitals, while 24 were brought in dead. A total of 87 patients had underlying health conditions.
“Of the fatalities, 69 were male and 46 were female.”
Yesterday’s fatalities pushed the cumulative Covid-19 deaths to 6,728, or 0.75 per cent of total cases.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry has formally registered the Covid-19 outbreak among volunteers and healthcare workers at the Shah Alam Ideal Convention Centre (IDCC) as a cluster.
Dr Noor Hisham said up to Wednesday, 104 new infections had been linked to the cluster, named the Jalan Pahat 15 cluster.
“Up to noon on Wednesday, 463 people have been tested. A total of 104 people tested positive, all Malaysians, while 259 tested negative.
“We are awaiting test results for 100 people,” he said, adding that targeted testing was conducted on July 10 after tests on some symptomatic workers came back positive.
He said the authorities were investigating the source of the cluster at the IDCC, which is a vaccination centre.
The outbreak, first announced on Tuesday, involved 204 out of 453 workers at the vaccination centre.