Covid-19 (Nov 22): 4,885 cases, R-naught 1.00

COVID-19 | The Health Ministry reported 4,885 new Covid-19 cases today, bringing the cumulative infections to 2,591,486.

The fresh infections comprised 4,747 Malaysians (97.2 percent) and 138 non-citizens (2.8 percent).

They were surpassed by a total of 5,628 Covid-19 patients who recovered today. This is expected to help reduce the number of active cases.

• Patients in ICU: 549
• Intubated: 274

As of today, the number of Covid-19 patients (including suspected ones) in the intensive care unit (ICU) is 4.4 percent higher compared to a week ago.

Those who require intubation have also increased by 9.6 percent from a week ago.

Nationally, hospital admissions in the last seven days have declined by 4.4 percent compared to the preceding week.

However, hospital admissions in some states are on the rise, particularly in Penang (+29.7 percent) and Kelantan (+12.2 percent) during the same period.

As of yesterday, the R-naught for the country is 1.00. An R-naught of more than 1.00 would suggest that the spread of Covid-19 is accelerating.

Regionally, the R-naught is above 1.00 in Selangor, Kelantan, Kuala Lumpur, Putrajaya, Negeri Sembilan, Kedah, Pahang, Perak and Terengganu.

The lowest R-naught is in Sarawak (0.84). The new case count in Sarawak yesterday was the lowest in four months.

The Health Ministry only publishes today's breakdown of new cases by states after midnight on its CovidNow portal.

The breakdown by states for yesterday (Nov 21), where 4,854 new cases were reported, is as follows:

Selangor (1,365)
Johor (494)
Kelantan (486)
Sabah (437)
Kedah (275)
Penang (271)
Pahang (265)
Sarawak (245)
Kuala Lumpur (235)
Terengganu (208)
Negeri Sembilan (197)
Perak (177)
Malacca (142)
Putrajaya (31)
Labuan (14)
Perlis (12)

Some 233 Covid-19 clusters are still active, including seven new ones reported today.

The ongoing clusters have fallen by 6.8 percent from the 250 active clusters a week ago.