KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 7 (NNN-Bernama) — A total of 392 positive COVID-19 cases involving variants of concern (VOC) was detected in Malaysia from Sept 25 until Wednesday, according to Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
Of the total, he said 384 cases were of the Delta variant and eight others were of Beta variant.
He said the latest development brought the cumulative number of cases categorised as VOC and Variants Under Monitoring (VUM) to 2,252 cases.
Dr Noor Hisham said of the 2,252 cases detected, a total of 2,232 cases were VOC and 20 others were variants of interest (VOI).
“Overall, there are 1,996 Delta variant cases, 222 Beta variant cases and 14 Alpha variant cases are in the VOC category,” he said.
The World Health Organisation has, on Sept 30, listed Theta, Kappa and Eta under the VUM. Previously, all three were categorised as VOI.
Now, only Lambda and Mu are categorised as VOI.
Meanwhile, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in post on his social media platforms on Thursday said the daily tally of new COVID-19 cases in Malaysia increased slightly with 9,890 cases recorded over the past 24 hours compared to 9,380 cases recorded on Wednesday.
He said the increase brings the cumulative number of cases to 2,313,727.
He said Sarawak remains the state with the highest number of cases at 1,413, followed by Selangor (1,402), Kelantan (1,032), Johor (993), Sabah (820), Perak (794), Penang (721), Terengganu (699), Pahang (564), Kedah (503), Melaka (260), Kuala Lumpur (250), Perlis (200), Negeri Sembilan (180) and Putrajaya (59).
Dr Noor Hisham said that as of 5 pm Wednesday, 55 per cent of intensive care unit (ICU) beds and 50 per cent of non-ICU beds were in use.
— NNN-BERNAMA