Malaysia reports 9,705 new COVID cases on Saturday

KUALA LUMPUR, April 17 (Bernama) -- Malaysia reported 9,705 new COVID-19 cases on Saturday, bringing the national tally to 4,382,402. Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said of the total new cases, 9,675 were local transmissions with 96.1 per cent involving Malaysians and 3.9 per cent foreigners. Meanwhile, a total of 14,346 recovered cases were reported on the same day. “A total of 331 COVID-19 cases were admitted to the hospital yesterday with 146 cases or 44.1 per cent in categories three, four and five while the remaining 185 cases or 55.9 per cent in categories one and two,” Dr Noor Hisham said in a statement today. Categories one and two refer to COVID-19 patients with no or mild symptoms while categories three, four and five are patients with lung infection, requiring oxygen aid and respiratory assistance. He said COVID-19 patients requiring ventilators dropped to 81 patients, with the ventilator usage rate being nine per cent. The national COVID-19 infectivity rate or Rt value is 0.85, he added. According to the Health Ministry’s GitHub portal, 12 deaths related to COVID-19 were reported Saturday. On vaccination, COVIDNOW website showed that 1,403,498 individuals or 39.5 per cent of children aged between five and 11 years have received at least one dose of vaccine under the National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme for Children (PICKids) as of Saturday. A total of 366,295 children or 10.3 per cent of this group have been fully vaccinated. For teenagers between 12 and 17 years old, 2,871,425 individuals or 92.3 per cent have completed their vaccination while 2,973,462 or 95.6 per cent have received at least one dose. Among the adult population, 15,970,302 individuals or 67.9 per cent have received the booster shot while 22,960,578 or 97.6 per cent have completed their second dose and 23,237,257 or 98.8 per cent have received at least one jab. -- BERNAMA