The Covid-19 situation in the country is still "very serious", said Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, although new daily cases have dropped as of late.

He pointed out that the use of intensive care beds had increased from 96 percent on May 24 to 104 percent on June 6. 

"When Intensive Care Unit (ICU) bed usage is above 100 percent, it is very worrying because not every patient who requires critical care are placed in the ICU," he explained in a statement today. 

He said Category 4 patients typically require 14 to 16 days of treatment while patients in Category 5 need between 19 and 26 days. 

There has been an uptrend in Category 4 and 5 patients, Noor Hisham said, who require oxygen and ventilators, especially among the elderly and those with co-morbidity.

As of June 6, the bed use for Covid-19 patients not requiring intensive care has dropped to 89 percent, down from 99 percent two weeks prior, he added.

In the first eight days of June alone, Malaysia recorded 740 deaths attributed to Covid-19, which was slightly over half of the deaths reported in May (1,289).