Covid-19 (Jan 24): 3,214 cases, R-number at 1.08

The Health Ministry reported 3,214 new Covid-19 cases today, bringing the cumulative infections to 2,836,159.

They were more than the number of Covid-19 patients who recovered, which totalled 3,116. This is expected to contribute to a rise in the number of active cases.

The fresh infections today is the lowest since Jan 17, but this may be due to a lull in testing over the weekend.

As of yesterday, the R-number for Covid-19 has risen further to 1.08 - the highest since more than five months ago on Aug 8 last year. This is the third consecutive day the number has risen above 1.00.

A number above 1.00 would suggest the growth of the outbreak is accelerating.

States and territories that have R-numbers above 1.00 are Negeri Sembilan (1.14), Kuala Lumpur (1.09), Kedah (1.08), Malacca (1.08), Johor (1.08), Putrajaya (1.05), Selangor (1.04), Penang (1.02), and Pahang (1.02). Additionaly, the R-number in Perak is 1.00.

• Patients in ICU: 146
• Intubated: 65

As of today, the number of Covid-19 patients (including suspected ones) in the intensive care unit (ICU) is 20.7 percent lower compared to a week ago.

Those who require intubation have also declined by 25.3 percent from a week ago.

Nationally, the number of hospital admissions of confirmed Covid-19 patients in the last seven days have declined by 2.1 percent compared to the preceding week.

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 23), where 3,856 new cases were reported, is as follow:

Selangor (1,063)
Johor (524)
Kuala Lumpur (379)
Kedah (289)
Pahang (264)
Negeri Sembilan (258)
Kelantan (223)
Penang (206)
Malacca (201)
Sabah (172)
Perak (159)
Terengganu (56)
Putrajaya (25)
Sarawak (14)
Perlis (13)
Labuan (10)

In Pahang, the state has its highest case numbers since Jan 2, with 264 cases recorded today.

To date, 234 Covid-19 clusters are still active, including 9 new clusters reported today.

The ongoing clusters have seen an increase of 32.2 percent from the 177 active clusters a week ago.

Of note are education clusters. These have increased from 15 new clusters identified during the second week of the year, to 62 new clusters during the third week last week.