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ICU beds for Covid-19 patients over 50 per cent in four states

KUALA LUMPUR: Bed usage at intensive care units (ICU) for Covid-19 cases in four states exceeded 50 per cent, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

The states are Kelantan that had a utilisation rate of 78 per cent, Johor at 69 per cent, Kuala Lumpur at 62 per cent and Melaka (54 per cent).

In a statement today, he said Covid-19 hospital admissions had slightly increased from 1,510 on Monday (Feb 21) to 1,520 yesterday.

He said of the new admissions, 545 cases were in Categories 3, 4 and 5 while 975 cases were in Categories 1 and 2.

As of Feb 22, normal bed usage for Covid-19 cases in two states was above 100 per cent, namely Perlis with 114 per cent and Kelantan where 108 per cent of beds are used.

More than half of the normal beds in another nine states are occupied, including Selangor that had a bed usage of 99 per cent, Perak (95 per cent), Putrajaya (74 per cent), Johor and Kuala Lumpur (72 per cent), Sabah (70 per cent), Pahang (68 per cent), Terengganu (54 per cent) and Penang (51 per cent).

He said four states have over 50 per cent bed usage at Covid-19 Quarantine and Treatment Centres (PKRC), namely, Perak (72 per cent), Selangor (70 per cent), Melaka (55 per cent) and Sabah (55 per cent).

He added that Covid-19 patients requiring ventilation support had also increased to 180.

Meanwhile, he said 27,179 new infections were recorded yesterday, pushing the toll to 3,273,958.

Of the new cases, 120 were imported involving 64 Malaysians and 56 foreigners.

"Of the 27,179 new infections, 19,215 cases were in Category 2; 7,792 in Category 1; 102 cases in Category 3; 43 cases in Category 4; and 27 cases in Category 5.

"Out of the 172 Category 3, 4 and 5 cases, 91 cases had completed two doses of the Covid-19 vaccine, 51 cases were unvaccinated or only received their first dose and 30 cases were those have been boosted.

"More than half of Categories 3, 4 and 5 cases have comorbidities; six cases were pregnant women and 67 cases were senior citizens," he said.

He added nine new clusters were identified, including six education clusters, two high-risk group clusters and one workplace cluster in seven states.

Forty-three Covid-19 deaths were also reported yesterday, including 20 brought-in-dead cases, taking the toll to 32,433.

Data on CovidNow showed currently 267,084 people in the country are infected with Covid-19.

More than 95 per cent of the cases or 254,520 are observing home quarantine, 2.8 per cent (7,574 cases) are at hospitals, 1.8 per cent (4,704 cases) receiving treatment at PKRCs, and 286 are treated at ICUs.

In a Tweet, Dr Noor Hisham said the national infectivity rate, Rt, has slightly dropped from 1.16 on Monday to 1.15 yesterday.

Labuan has highest Rt at 1.42, followed by Sarawak that had an infectivity rate of 1.35 and Terengganu (1.29).

The Rt in other states was between 1.27 and 1.11.

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