BY James Kon

The Sultanate recorded 775 new COVID-19 cases on Thursday, bringing the national tally of confirmed cases to 129,081. Of the new cases, 627 were from antigen rapid test (ART) results uploaded to the BruHealth app, while 148 were from 1,965 RT-PCR laboratory tests performed in the past 24 hours.

Meanwhile, in the past 24 hours, the country registered one COVID-19 fatality. The case is categorised as death not due to COVID-19.

The latest updates were shared by Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar at the daily press conference on Thursday.

In light of the fatalities, Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham said, “On behalf of the MoH and the people of Brunei Darussalam, I would like to express our deepest condolences to the case’s family. May the case’s soul receive blessings and be placed among the pious.”

The minister said, “There are eight cases in Category 4 and three in Category 5. The total number of cases in Categories 4 and 5 is five per cent of the treatment capacity of the categories at the National Isolation Centre (NIC).”

Meanwhile, 1,919 cases have recovered, bringing the tally of recovered cases to 118,980 cases with 9,901 active cases.

At present, the bed occupancy rate at isolation centres nationwide is 4.2 per cent with 155 active cases placed in isolation centres and hospitals, while 9,746 are undergoing home self-isolation.

As of March 23, the minister said, “Under the National COVID-19 Vaccination Programme, 60.3 per cent of the population has received three doses.”

Deputy Permanent Secretary (Professional) at the Ministry of Health (MoH) Dr Ang Swee Hui was also present.

-- Courtesy of Borneo Bulletin