Covid-19 (Jan 18): 3,245 cases, weekly admissions down 11.3pct

COVID-19 | The Health Ministry reported 3,245 new Covid-19 cases today, bringing the cumulative infections to 2,813,934.

They were more than the number of Covid-19 patients who recovered, which totalled 3,093. This is expected to contribute to a rise in the number of active cases.

The R-number is still hovering just below the 1.00 threshold, which is at 0.98 as of yesterday. States and territories that meet or exceed that threshold are Kuala Lumpur (1.06), Negeri Sembilan (1.05), Sabah (1.04), Malacca (1.04), and Selangor (1.00).

If an R-number above 1.00 is sustained, that would mean daily Covid-19 case numbers would increase at an accelerating pace.

• Patients in ICU: 183
• Intubated: 84

As of today, the number of Covid-19 patients, including suspected ones, in the intensive care unit (ICU) is 20.1 percent lower compared to a week ago.

Those who require intubation have also declined by 15.2 percent from a week ago.

Nationally, the number of hospital admissions of confirmed Covid-19 patients in the last seven days has declined by 11.3 percent compared to the preceding week.

To date, 188 Covid-19 clusters are still active, including 17 new clusters reported today.

The ongoing clusters have increased by 5.6 percent from 178 active clusters a week ago.

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

The breakdown by states for yesterday (Jan 17), when 2,342 new cases were reported, is as follows:

Selangor (524)
Johor (351)
Kedah (268)
Malacca (201)
Kelantan (172)
Kuala Lumpur (168)
Sabah (163)
Pahang (127)
Perak (103)
Penang (84)
Negeri Sembilan (83)
Terengganu (64)
Putrajaya (14)
Sarawak (9)
Perlis (8)
Labuan (3)