PETALING JAYA: Malaysia detected 2,256 new Covid-19 infections on Friday (Oct 21), bringing the total number of cases in the country to 4,877,387 since the pandemic began.

The Health Ministry's KKMNow portal reported that 2,250 of Friday's new infections were locally transmitted while there were six imported cases.

According to the Ministry's GitHub data repository, this is the third day in a row where the country has detected more than 2,000 daily Covid-19 cases.

The KKMNow portal also reported that there were 1,363 recoveries on Friday, bringing the total number of recoveries in the country to 4,814,421 since the pandemic began.

It also reported that there were 26,526 active Covid-19 infections as of 11.59pm on Friday with 25,425, or 95.8%, observing home quarantine.

A total of 1,054 individuals, or 4% of active cases, were being treated in hospitals throughout the country, with 47, or 0.2%, admitted to intensive care units (ICU).

Of those in ICU on Friday, 30 are unventilated while 17 require ventilator support.

The portal also reported that Malaysia's ICU utilisation rate stood at 61.7% as at 11.59pm on Friday.

Data from the Ministry's GitHub repository showed that there were three deaths due to Covid-19 on Friday, including one classified as brought-in-dead.

This brings the total number of fatalities due to Covid-19 in Malaysia to 36,440 since the pandemic began.

The data repository also showed that two of Friday's Covid-19 deaths were recorded in Negri Sembilan while there was one fatality in Selangor.