KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7 — Malaysia’s daily new Covid-19 cases record hit 10,089 yesterday, going over 10,000 cases for the first time in more than four months and seemingly pushing back the work of months of vaccination drives and pandemic-related restrictions.
Before yesterday, the last record above 10,000 cases in the country was the 10,915 infections recorded on October 2, 2021.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin yesterday said the recent rise in cases was due to Malaysia feeling the full effects of a wave of infections with the Covid-19 Omicron variant, adding that he expects daily cases to reach 15,000 soon.
Although Covid-19 and Omicron remain a grave threat to lives nationwide, a look at Health Ministry data reveals that other key statistics — aside from daily cases — have not seen a similar rise in number.
Deaths
For example, the number of deaths recorded on October 2, 2021 was 109. In comparison, there were nine Covid-19 deaths recorded yesterday.
Moreover, there was an average of 83 Covid-19 related deaths for the week up to October 2, 2021. Meanwhile, yesterday, the seven-day average was 10 deaths.
As of yesterday, 96.5 per cent of the 2,812,614 people infected with Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic in Malaysia have recovered.
On October 2 last year, the recovery rate was 92 per cent, based on the total 2,086,111 people infected with the novel coronavirus at the time.
ICU
On October 2 last year, there were 888 patients warded in Covid-19 intensive care units (ICU) nationwide, with 484 of them needing ventilators to help them breathe.
Yesterday, there were 137 Covid-19 related ICU patients, with 71 needing ventilator assistance.
Also yesterday, the percentage of ICU bed occupancy nationwide was at 52.6 per cent.
Although an exact percentage for October 2, 2021 is unavailable, a World Health Organisation (WHO) report on October 3 the same year said that the average Covid-19 ICU bed occupancy rate in Malaysia was 56.2 per cent for that week.
Active cases
Compared to the 155,823 active Covid-19 cases recorded on October 2 last year, active cases numbered 69,572 yesterday — a drop of 55.4 per cent.
Malaysia recorded 11,034 new Covid-19 cases today, marking a jump of almost 1,000 cases from yesterday’s 10,089 figure.
This latest development brings cumulative Covid-19 cases in Malaysia to 2,925,254 since the pandemic began two years ago.
The country has also reported over 32,000 deaths in the same period.
About 97.9 per cent of Malaysia’s adult population has received two doses of the vaccine, while 52.3 per cent have also received the booster shot.
Approximately, 88.7 per cent of those aged 12 to 17 have also received two doses of the vaccine.
Vaccinations for those aged five to 11 rolled out last week.
