MALAYSIA reported 331 Covid-19 hospital admissions yesterday with almost half of the cases being in the serious categories, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said.

The director-general of health said 146 of the patients were in categories 3, 4 and 5, and the rest, in the least severe categories of 1 and 2.

He said admissions under category 2 was the highest, at 152, followed by category 4 (68), category 3 (61), category 1 (33) and category 5 (17). 

Selangor, the state with the highest number of new Covid-19 infections yesterday, also recorded the greatest number of hospital admissions, at 74, followed by Perak (64) and Johor (36).

Other states and territories reporting new admissions were Negri Sembilan (23), Kuala Lumpur (21), Terengganu (16), Sarawak (16), Kedah (15), Malacca (13), Penang (13), Putrajaya (12), Pahang (12), Sabah (9), Kelantan (5) and Perlis (2). 

No admission was recorded in Labuan. 

A total of 335 patients discharged from hospital yesterday. 

Noor Hisham said 9,656 or 99.5% of the new Covid-19 cases logged yesterday were in categories of 1 and 2. 

Only 49 of the cases were in categories 3, 4 and 5. 

Noor Hisham said of the 49 serious cases, 17 had either not been vaccinated or completed their vaccinations. 

He said 15 of them had received two doses of a vaccine but had not taken their booster shots while the remaining 17 had their booster jabs. 

He said 29 of the cases involved those above the age of 60 and 27 of them have comorbidities while one involved a pregnant woman. 

No state or territory has exceeded the 50% mark on intensive care unit (ICU) utilisation related to Covid-19. 

On the bed take-up rate for Covid-19 cases, Noor Hisham said of the 11,498 beds available for non-critical cases, 2,268 (20%) were occupied.

Of the 859 beds in ICU, 134 (16%) were occupied while 375 (5%) of the 6,982 beds in low-risk quarantine centres were in use. – April 17, 2022.