Covid-19 (Nov 11): 6,323 cases, R-naught creeps up to 0.99

COVID-19 | The Health Ministry today reported 6,323 new Covid-19 cases, as the R-naught creeps up to 0.99.

The new daily case count is the highest in 14 days, since Oct 28.

The fresh infections are more than the number of Covid-19 patients who recovered, which totalled 5,337. This is expected to contribute to a rise in the number of active cases.

The R-naught - or reproduction number for new Covid-19 cases - has been on the uptrend since Oct 21.

An R-naught of more than 1.00 suggests that the spread of Covid-19 is accelerating. The R-naught is above 1.00 in Kelantan (1.01), Selangor (1.03), Kuala Lumpur (1.03) and Putrajaya (1.06).

Nationally, the number of hospital admissions in the last seven days have declined by 3.3 percent compared to the preceding week.

The hospitalisation rate of Covid-19 patients is mostly under control. However, new Covid-19 admissions are up in Terengganu (+33 percent), Kuala Lumpur (+17 percent) and Negeri Sembilan (+10 percent).

Covid-19 hospital bed utilisation is highest in Terengganu (89 percent), Kelantan (84 percent) and Malacca (80 percent). Covid-19 beds are a dynamic figure as other parts of hospitals can be repurposed when necessary.

• Patients in ICU: 538
• Intubated: 274

The breakdown of new cases by state will only be available after midnight. These are the figures for yesterday:

Selangor (1,597)
Kelantan (806)
Sabah (573)
Johor (485)
Sarawak (480)
Kedah (438)
Pahang (367)
Kuala Lumpur (323)
Penang (318)
Terengganu (273)
Perak (200)
Negeri Sembilan (199)
Malacca (125)
Perlis (33)
Putrajaya (19)
Labuan (7)

Genomic surveillance

Only 48 Covid-19 samples have undergone full genomic sequencing this week, all of which were conducted by the UiTM's Integrative Pharmacogenomics Institute (iPromise) in Puncak Alam, Selangor.

All 48 samples were identified as the Delta variant.

For comparison, a consortium of several health and research institutes in Malaysia (including iPromise) had sequenced 1,047 samples last week, 259 samples two weeks ago, and 134 samples the week before.

Such surveillance is important for monitoring the evolution of the virus and to flag any potentially problematic mutations for further scrutiny.

Clusters

To date, 288 Covid-19 clusters are still active, including four new ones.

The ongoing clusters have fallen by 21.5 percent from 367 a week ago.

The four new clusters today comprised three workplace clusters (75.0 percent) and one non-education ministry institution cluster (25.0 percent).

Industri Perusahaan Lorong Perak Tiga
Category: Workplace
States: Selangor
District(s): Kuala Langat
Initial tests: 13 out of 116 infected (11.2 percent)

Industri Jalan Peserai
Category: Workplace
States: Johor
District(s): Batu Pahat
Initial tests: 19 out of 239 infected (7.9 percent)

Jalan Gambut Kuantan
Category: Workplace
States: Pahang
District(s): Kuantan
Initial tests: 8 out of 32 infected (25.0 percent)

Jalan Setiawangsa Utama
Category: Non-Education Ministry institution
States: Kuala Lumpur
District(s): Titiwangsa
Initial tests: 6 out of 27 infected (22.2 percent)