PUTRAJAYA: The number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care units (ICUs) continued to fall, with the latest figure standing at 792 on Friday (Oct 8).
This is a decrease from 827 the previous day and a marked improvement from early August when the average was about 1,500.
In his daily Covid-19 statement, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said of the ICU cases, 386 are those that require ventilator support.
“Of the 792 patients in ICU, 715 are confirmed Covid-19 cases while 77 are suspected cases.
“Of the 386 patients on ventilator support, 302 are confirmed Covid-19 cases,” said Dr Noor Hisham.
Based on the Health Ministry’s CovidNow website, the nationwide ICU utilisation rate is 64%.
On Friday, Malaysia reported 9,751 new cases, of which nearly 98% are mild and asymptomatic infections.
“Of the 9,751 cases, 9,545 or 97.9% of them are Category 1 and 2 infections.
“Another 206 cases (2.1%) are Category 3, 4 and 5 infections.
“Cumulatively, the country has recorded 2,323,478 cases of Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic,” said Dr Noor Hisham.
There were 15 imported cases, involving 11 Malaysians and four foreign nationals.
Of the local cases, 93.7% were Malaysians and 6.3% were foreigners.
Selangor was the highest among states with 1,796 new infections.
Another two states that reported four-digit case increases were Sarawak with 1,339 cases and Kelantan with 1,052.
In the same 24-hour span, Malaysia discharged 12,724 Covid-19 patients from treatment.
This brings the total number of recoveries to 2,170,289, which is a recovery rate of 93.4%.