COVID-19 intensive care unit admissions rose to 1,071 as of noon today, an increase from yesterday’s 1,049, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said.

The director-general of health said the figure consisted of confirmed, suspected and probable cases.

Of the total, 601 require respiratory support.

Recoveries continued to outnumber new cases. A total of 18,074 recovered from Covid-19 while 14,889 tested positive for the coronavirus. 

The majority of today’s new infections (or 13,688) were in category 1 (asymptomatic) or 2 (mild symptoms), while 211 were in categories 3, 4, or 5. 

Health authorities also reported 12 new clusters, which brings the active cluster count in the country to 1,214.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham said health authorities detected 475 cases involving variants of concern (VOC), of which 472 are the Delta variant while three are Beta. 

In total, there 1,840 cases involving VOC and another 20 involving variants of interest.

In a further breakdown of these cases, he said1,612 cases involved the Delta variant, 214 cases were Beta and 14 cases were Alpha.

The Theta variant accounted for 13 cases, Kappa variant (4) and Eta variant (3). – September 25, 2021.