In a press conference today, Dr Adham Baba said his ministry had detected a daily average of 3,049 cases in the last seven days.

This was a 22.7% increase in new cases and 24.4% increase in average active cases from the week before.

The ministry also recorded a 69.9% rise in the number of reported deaths and a 25.2% increase in cases under intensive care.

Adham also revealed that from Jan 1 to May 1, a total of 9,482,220 Covid-19 tests had been conducted.

“Some 480,688 tests were done in the past week (Week 17), with an average of 68,670 tests a day,” he said. “The positivity rate for tests in Week 17 was 4.4%.”

He added that since April 3, the country’s infectivity rate or R-naught has been constantly above 1.0.

According to Adham, the health ministry also recorded 86 new clusters last week, a 26.5% increase in new clusters reported from the previous week.

“Twenty-five new clusters were from the community, 24 from educational institutions, 24 from workplaces, seven from religious activities, three from detention centres and three involving high-risk groups.”

Adham said 13 interstate clusters had been detected since April, adding that the government would maintain its ban on interstate travel until the next update on May 17.

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