57.3 PER CENT INCREASE IN COVID-19 CASES IN ME47/2023

Health director-general Datuk Dr Muhammad Radzi Abu Hassan said 48 ​​per cent of the cases involved those between the ages of 20 and 4, with more than 98 per cent of them only having mild symptoms.

He said the weekly COVID-19 cases had exceeded 1,000 cases every week from Week ME 41/2023 to ME 47/2023 with an increased rate of between 7.1 to 57.3 per cent.

He said there are eight COVID-19 clusters still active reported with 121 cases involved.

“The cumulative number of clusters reported up to ME 47/2023 is 7,248. The majority of clusters reported are education clusters,” he said in a statement today.

Dr Muhammad Radzi said the admission rate of COVID-19 patients increased to 2.9 per 100,000 population in ME 47/2023 compared to the previous week, with the occupancy of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds at 0.4 per cent and non-critical COVID-19 beds at 0.9 per cent, while COVID-19 patients requiring ventilators remained at 0.2 per cent.

Although there is an increase in COVID-19 cases, he said, the situation is under control and does not burden existing health facilities.

According to him, a total of four new Omicron variants were reported in ME 47/2023, all of which consisted of Variant of Concern (VOC).

He said the cumulative number of cases infected with the SARS-CoV-2 virus categorized as VOC and Variant of Interest (VOI) was 28,102 cases with 27,297 cases being VOC and 805 VOI cases.

Dr Muhammad Radzi said two cases of the new Omicron variant BA.2.86 had been reported in Malaysia with both cases being treated as outpatients and in a stable condition.

The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently reported an increase in the BA.2.86 variant, with the first reported on July 24 and classified as VOI.– BERNAMA