KUALA LUMPUR, March 9 — Only 175 out of 31,490 new COVID-19 cases recorded Tuesday (March 8) were in categories three to five, said Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
He said the other 31,315 cases comprised categories one and two, with the additional new cases bringing the case tally in the country to 3,680,953.
A total of 29,035 recovered cases were reported, bringing the cumulative total of recoveries to 3,340,889.
“Of the 175 new cases in categories three to five, 39 cases were unvaccinated or had not been fully vaccinated; 90 cases had received two doses of COVID-19 vaccine but had not received a booster dose; and 46 cases had received a booster dose.
“A total of 107 those cases involved those aged 60 and above, 43 with comorbidities,” he said in a statement today.
He also said that 1,967 cases were admitted to hospitals yesterday, 691 of which were in categories three, four and five, and 1,276 others in categories one and two.
Dr Noor Hisham said 373 cases required treatment in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) with 223 requiring respiratory assistance.
On ICU bed occupancy in hospitals, he said six states recorded 50 per cent or more, namely Kelantan (73 per cent); Kuala Lumpur (65 per cent); Johor (63 per cent); Selangor (61 per cent); Perak (55 per cent); and Putrajaya (50 per cent).
As for the country’s infectivity rate (Rt), Dr Noor Hisham said it was now 1.07 with Sarawak recording the highest Rt of 1.36 followed by Kuala Lumpur (1.26), Terengganu (1.17), Perak (1.16) and Negeri Sembilan (1.11).
