AS the number of Covid-19 recoveries continued to outpace new cases for the second consecutive day, it had a direct impact on the reduction of cases of those in seeking treatment in the intensive care unit (ICU) and those requiring respiratory support.

Director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said there were 1,165 patients admitted to the ICU, where 888 were confirmed Covid-19 cases.

The remaining 277 were suspected cases and cases under investigation.

Noor Hisham said 689 patients were on ventilators, of which 401 were confirmed Covid-19 cases while the other 288 suspected or probable cases and cases under investigation.

Yesterday, figures of patients in the ICU and on ventilator stood at 1,223 and 720 respectively.

Meanwhile, Malaysia today reported 17,205 recoveries against 15,549 new cases.

Noor Hisham said that 98.31% or 15,286 of the cases reported today were in categories of 1 and 2, displaying no to mild symptoms.

Only 263 or 1.69% of cases were reported to be in the more serious stages of infections, that is in categories 3, 4 and 5.

Besides this, the Health Ministry detected 16 new Covid-19 clusters as of noon today, which accounted for 399 cases.

Noor Hisham said 10 clusters were linked to workplaces (204 cases), four traced to the community (164 cases) and two involving high-risk groups (31 cases).

Of the 16 new clusters, four were reported in Johor; two each in Selangor, Sarawak, Perak and Kelantan; and one each in Labuan, Penang, Sabah and Pahang.

These 16 new clusters today brought the total number of clusters in the country to 5,263, of which 1,364 are active and 3,899 have ended. – September 18, 2021.