MALAYSIA reported 663 new Covid-19 hospitalisations yesterday, with almost half of them in Category 2, exhibiting mild symptoms, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said.

The director-general of health said that 324 patients were in Category 2, followed by Category 4 (159), Category 3 (108), Category 1 (54) and Category 5 (18).

Overall, of the 663 patients hospitalised, 378 (57%) were in the least severe categories of 1 and 2, while the remaining 285 (43%) were in the more serious categories of 3, 4 and 5.

Selangor, which reported bulk of the 14,692 new infections yesterday, was the only state to report admissions in triple-digits at 124.

Other states and territories reporting new hospitalisations are Johor (97), Perak (77), Sarawak (63), Penang (50), Kuala Lumpur (45), Kedah (35), Pahang (33), Kelantan (33), Negri Sembilan (26), Terengganu (24), Putrajaya (18), Malacca (17), Sabah (17) and Perlis (4).

Labuan did not report any new admissions.

Noor Hisham said 766 patients were discharged from hospitals yesterday.

Of the 14,692 new infections logged yesteday, Noor Hisham said that 14,613 (99.46%) of the cases were in asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic categories of 1 and 2.

Only 79 (0.54) of the cases were in the serious categories of 3, 4 and 5.

Noor Hisham said of the 79 serious cases, 19 had either not been vaccinated or completed their vaccinations.

He said 42 of them had received two doses of vaccine but had not taken their booster shots, while the remaining 18 had their booster jabs.

He said 46 of the cases involved those above the age of 60 and 42 of them have comorbidities.

On intensive care unit (ICU) utilisation related to Covid-19, only Kuala Lumpur and Selangor were at or exceeded the 50% mark. 

Kuala Lumpur topped the list with 67% usage, while Selangor was at 50%.

Meanwhile, Noor Hisham said that nearly 34% of the ventilators nationwide are utilised.

Selangor had the highest number of ventilators in use with 121, followed by Sabah (96) and Kelantan (94).

On the bed take-up rate for Covid-19 cases, Noor Hisham said of the 12,145 beds available for non-critical cases, 3,922 (32%) were occupied.

Of the 880 beds in ICU, 261 (30%) were occupied while 555 (6%) of the 9,676 beds in low-risk quarantine centres were in use. – April 3, 2022.