In his update for the week ending Oct 15, Noor Hisham said there were no changes in the number of Covid-19 patients admitted to public hospitals under Category 1 and 2 from the preceding week, but Category 3, 4 and 5 patients rose by 16.7% per 100,000 cases.

No beds were in use in low-risk quarantine and treatment centres.

Overall bed occupancy for non-critical beds remained unchanged, while the utilisation of intensive care unit (ICU) beds dropped by 2%.

Active cases also decreased during the week by 3% to 22,725.

“Recoveries dropped by 13.2% from 12,882 to 11,180,” Noor Hisham said.

“The number of deaths decreased by 29.2% from 24 to 17, bringing the cumulative figure for fatalities to 36,415.”

He said 4,865,480 Covid-19 cases have been recorded in the country since January 2020.