KUALA LUMPUR: Daily Covid-19 infections dropped slightly to 3,589 cases on Friday from the previous day's 4,020 cases.
Of the fresh infections, three were imported and 3,586 were local transmissions. Data on CovidNow also showed that there were 2,224 recoveries and six deaths, including two brought-in-dead cases in Melaka and Selangor.
Selangor and Kuala Lumpur which registered 1,261 and 1,083 cases respectively remained the highest contributors to the daily cases.
The states that recorded three-digit cases were Perak with logged 275 infections, Negri Sembilan (198), Sabah (176), and Penang (121). The remaining cases were in Melaka (97), Putrajaya (74), Johor (69), Sarawak (59), Kedah (55), Pahang (46), Perlis 26), Kelantan (21), Labuan (17), and Terengganu (11).
On Friday, 525 Covid-19 patients were admitted to hospitals, while Covid-19 designated normal beds utilisation rate stood at 19.4 per cent, intensive care unit beds at 10.2 per cent and the Covid-19 quarantine and treatment centres (PKRC) at 23.7 per cent.
Of the 35,198 active cases, 33,888 are undergoing home quarantine, 1,241 treated at hospitals, 42 warded at ICU and 27 isolated at PKRC. Of the 42 ICU cases, 25 patients are on ventilators.
A new detention centre for the Dti Persiaran Wawasan 2 cluster was also identified in Kangar, Perlis, yesterday (Friday). Currently, 22 cases were linked to this cluster with a positivity rate of 73.3 per cent.
On Friday, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said Malaysia had entered a new Covid-19 wave and his ministry expected a rise in new cases from the Omicron sub-variants, particularly the BA.5 sub-variant.
He said BA.5 was the most transmissible version of Covid-19 to date compared with the BA.1 and BA.2 Omicron sub-variants. He also said BA.5 could re-infect those who had been infected with Omicron because the sub-variant has immune-escape properties.
To date, 4,589,911 people in the country have been infected with the coronavirus, of whom 4,518,912 have recovered, and 35,801 have died.