KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia registered 3,997 new Covid-19 cases today, raising the national tally to 2,754,513 since the pandemic struck last year.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said of the new infections, 3,631 were local cases (3,516 Malaysians and 31 foreigners), while the remaining 366 cases were imported (335 Malaysians and 31 foreigners).
He further said out of the new cases reported, only 64 cases or 1.6 per cent were in Categories 3, 4, and 5.
The remaining 3,933 (98.4 per cent), he said were asymptomatic or those with mild symptoms under Categories 1 and 2.
"A total of 281 patients are being treated in the intensive care units, including 155 on ventilator support.
"A total of 3,984 patients have recovered, raising the cumulative number of recoveries to 2,681,390 as of today," he said in a statement today.
Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said the nation's R-naught (Rt) stood at 0.95 as of Dec 29.
He said Kelantan had the highest Rt at 1.01, followed by Terengganu with 1.00, Johor (0.97), Kedah and Putrajaya (0.94), Perak (0.93), Selangor and Melaka (0.92), Penang (0.91), Pahang (0.90), Kuala Lumpur and Perlis (0.89), Negri Sembilan (0.88), Sabah (0.87), Labuan (0.73) and Sarawak (0.71).
Rt refers to the infectivity rate of a virus and the ability of a positive patient to transmit it to others.
On new clusters, Dr Noor Hisham said another three clusters were identified today. He said there are 221 active clusters nationwide of the total 6,123 clusters recorded to date.
He said detailed information and breakdown of cases will be uploaded to the ministry's CovidNow portal at https://covidnow.moh.gov.my, with the data being updated at midnight daily.
Meanwhile, the Health Ministry has detected another 71 cases of infectious diseases among flood victims.
Dr Noor Hisham said from the total, 21 were acute respiratory infection (ARI) cases, 30 suffering from skin diseases, 13 identified with food poisoning or acute gastroenteritis (AGE) and two with Hand Foot and Mouth Disease (HFMD).
He said as of 3pm today, the number of Covid-19 cases reported among flood victims stood at 442 cases.
"There are 15 positive cases among flood victims at temporary evacuation centres.
"No new clusters were reported while at PPS."
Currently, the number of flood victims recorded by the government stands at 6,348.
Dr Noor Hisham added that as of today, 61 PPS were operating in four flood-hit states - Kelantan, Pahang, Selangor and Negeri Sembilan.