THE number of active Covid-19 cases nationwide rose to 114,053, the highest since the onset of the pandemic, as Malaysia recorded more new cases than recoveries in the past 24 hours, said director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

As of noon today, Malaysia reported 12,541 fresh infections against 6,742 recoveries, increasing the number of active cases.

However, Noor Hisham said that of the new cases reported today, 12,352 or 98.5% of the cases were from Categories 1 and 2, the presenting the least severe symptoms.

He said only 189 cases or 1.5% were in Categories 3, 4 and 5.

Category 1 means patients are asymptomatic, Category 2 means patients have mild symptoms, Category 3 are patients with pneumonia, Category 4 are patients with pneumonia who need oxygen support and patients in Category 5 are those who are in critical condition and need breathing assistance through ventilation.

Meanwhile, Noor Hisham said that the number of people in intensive care rose again, as did patients requiring respiratory support, after a sharp decline two days ago.

As of today, 896 patients are being treated in ICU, with 459 of them requiring respiratory support.

Besides this, Noor Hisham also said 115 people died today – 104 Malaysian and 11 foreign nationals – taking the cumulative death toll to 6,728.

Besides reporting the most cases by state, Selangor also reported the highest number of deaths today at 53.

Other states to report deaths were Kuala Lumpur with 24 deaths, Johor and Malacca (seven deaths each), Penang (five), Negri Sembilan and Kedah (four each), Sabah and Perak (three each), Kelantan and Terengganu (two each), and Labuan (one).

Twenty-four deaths were pronounced dead on arrival (DOA), with Selangor reporting 14, Kuala Lumpur (three), Penang (two), and Johor, Malacca, Sabah, Kelantan and Terengganu (one each).

Sixty-nine of the fatalities were men and 46 were women. – July 16, 2021.