Covid-19 (Jan 23): 3,856 new cases, infectivity rate at 1.07

COVID-19 | The Health Ministry reported 3,856 new Covid-19 cases today, bringing the cumulative infections to 2,832,945.

The fresh infections today comprised 3,614 Malaysians (93.7 percent) and 242 non-citizens (6.3 percent).

They were more than the number of Covid-19 patients who recovered, which totalled 2814. This is expected to contribute to a rise in the number of active cases.

The national infectivity rate has also broken the 1.0 threshold, now at 1.07. A sustained value above 1.0 could lead to an exponential growth in fresh infections.

• Patients in ICU: 143
• Intubated: 53

As of today, the number of Covid-19 patients (including suspected ones) in the intensive care unit (ICU) is 23.5 percent lower compared to a week ago.

Those who require intubation have also declined by 37.6 percent from a week ago. 

The Health Ministry has warned that the country could see a resurgence of new Covid-19 cases due to the Omicron variant.

However, its modelling suggests that hospitals are expected to be able to cope with the surge due to the vast majority of the population already being vaccinated and symptoms from the variant are less severe.

To date, 235 Covid-19 clusters are still active, including 13 new clusters reported today.

The ongoing clusters have seen an increase of 33.5 percent from the 176 active clusters a week ago.

The breakdown of new cases according to states will only be available after midnight. These are the figures for yesterday (Jan 22) when 4,116 new cases were reported:

Selangor (1,145)
Johor (568)
Kelantan (430)
Kedah (342)
Kuala Lumpur (314)
Penang (249)
Negeri Sembilan (244)
Sabah (218)
Pahang (190)
Malacca (168)
Perak (136)
Terengganu (48)
Putrajaya (28)
Perlis (17)
Sarawak (14)
Labuan (5)