THE number of active Covid-19 cases in the country is on the rise as Malaysia reported 6,517 new infections against 6,026 recoveries in the past 24 hours, director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said.

Malaysia has now reported more new infections than recoveries in the past four days.

Data on the active cases will be updated on the ministry’s CovidNow website after midnight. The current figure stands at 63,827.

The new cases reported today are the highest in the past three weeks. The number of cases has been on the upward trend since Sunday, when 4,343 infections were logged.

The overall infectivity rate or R-naught has now risen to 1.00 from 0.99 yesterday.

The increase in the rate was largely due to the surge in new cases over the past few days, especially in the Klang Valley – Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya.

The R-naught at all three places is now above 1, where Putrajaya is leading the chart – the value rose from 1.06 yesterday to 1.16 today.

The infectivity rate in Kuala Lumpur increased by 0.01 to 1.04 while that in Selangor remained at 1.03.

Other states with an R-naught value above 1 are Kelantan (1.02), Negri Sembilan (1.01) and Pahang – the latest state to join the list with a value of 1.01.

Noor Hisham said that of the new cases recorded today, 6,392 or 98.1% of the cases were in the less severe asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic categories of 1 and 2.

The remaining 125 or 1.9% of the cases were in the more serious categories of 3, 4 and 5.

The increase in new infections over the past few days also saw a mild spike in intensive care unit admissions, where number of cases rose from 538 yesterday to 544 today.

Of that, 485 are confirmed Covid-19 cases while 59 are suspected or probable cases and cases under investigation.

A total of 269 patients are given ventilator support, where 194 are confirmed Covid-19 cases and 75 are suspected cases and cases under investigation. – November 12, 2021.