KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 13): Malaysia logged 16,073 new Covid-19 cases today, down 16.3% compared with 19,198 cases yesterday, the Health Ministry said.

This is the lowest number of daily infections in 42 days and brought total confirmed cases across the nation to 1,995,771.

A total of 15,840 or 98.5% of the new cases were in Categories 1 and 2 whereby patients only display mild symptoms or none at all, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

The remaining 233 cases (1.5%) were in Categories 3, 4 and 5, comprising those who had pneumonia and require oxygen and ventilators.

Sarawak remained the State with the highest number of cases at 3,522, albeit 33.4% less than the record 5,291 cases posted yesterday, Dr Noor Hisham said in a statement.

Johor came in second with 2,030 cases, followed by Selangor (1,947), Sabah (1,649), Penang (1,243), Kedah (1,191), Kelantan (1,070), Perak (1,011), Pahang (878), Terengganu (704), Kuala Lumpur (398), Melaka (206), Negeri Sembilan (156), Perlis (41), Putrajaya (16) and Labuan (11).

Currently, 967 Covid-19 patients are being treated in intensive care units (ICU), including 444 on ventilators.

Dr Noor Hisham said 24,813 patients were discharged today — the 13th straight day that recoveries outpaced daily infections — bringing the tally of recoveries across the country so far to 1,746,526.

The number of daily deaths and active cases will be updated from midnight on the Covid Now website, he said.

Dr Noor Hisham said Malaysia’s overall bed occupancy rate at ICUs in public hospitals for Covid-19 treatment currently stands at 83% out of 1,558 beds.

Kelantan, Kedah and Penang have all reported a more than 100% ICU bed occupancy rate.

The ICU bed usage in Kelantan stood at 168% (out of 85 beds), Kedah at 120% (104 beds) and Penang at 103% (73 beds).

As for non-ICU beds, the occupancy rate nationwide was at 75% (17,370 beds).

The Health Ministry said a total of 32 new clusters were identified in the 24 hours as of noon today, bringing the total number of active clusters to 1,444.

To date, 5,153 clusters have been reported nationwide including 3,709 that have been declared ended.