MALAYSIA logged its highest number of Covid-19 cases in a day since the pandemic began, with 28,825 Covid-19 cases yesterday.

The Ministry of Health reported that 1,521 of the new cases were admitted to hospital.

“At least 95 of the cases were in categories 3, 4 and 5, whereas 20,318 infections were category 2,” health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said.

The highest case recorded in a single day before this was on Wednesday with 27,831 cases.

Some 3.2 million people have been infected with Covid-19 since the onset of the pandemic.

Noor Hisham said there were 12 new clusters, bringing the active total to 492 nationwide.

He said there were 34 virus-linked deaths, taking the national death toll to 32,310, with 12 people declared dead on arrival.

“Of the fresh admissions, 548 cases are in categories 3, 4, and 5, whereas 973 cases are under category 1 and 2.

According to Noor Hisham, intensive care unit (ICU) utilisation was above 50% in three states.

“Johor recorded the highest utilisation (70%), followed by Kuala Lumpur (64%) and Kelantan (50%),” he said.

The Health Ministry’s GitHub database showed that Selangor logged the highest number of cases with 7,129 infections, followed by Sabah (5,565) and Johor (2,715).

Kedah reported 2,429 infections, followed by Penang (2,186), Kelantan (1,885), Negri Sembilan (1,457), Pahang (1,367), Kuala Lumpur (1,247), Malacca (818), Terengganu (616), Perak (475), Sarawak (376), Labuan (368), Perlis (191), and Putrajaya (144). – February 20, 2022.