Admissions of Covid-19 patients to health facilities per 100,000 population dropped 8.6% in the third epidemiological week 2023 (ME 3/2023) of Jan 15-21 compared to the previous week, says Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
He said admissions of patients in all five categories of infection to public hospitals per 100,000 population last week also declined by 28.6% from the previous epidemiological week.
“The utilisation rates of non-critical and ICU beds decreased by 2% each in ME 3/2023 compared to the previous week,” he said in a statement on Monday (Jan 23).
Dr Noor Hisham said there was also a decline in the number of positive cases monitored by Covid-19 Assessment Centres (CAC) nationwide.
According to him, Malaysia’s cumulative infections from Jan 25, 2020 to Jan 21 this year stood at 5,034,521, while cumulative recoveries came to 4,987,642 cases.
The cumulative figure for Covid-19 fatalities was 36,932 and the total number of clusters was 7,169 with five active ones, he added.
Dr Noor Hisham said the total number of recovered cases in ME 3/2023 dropped by 27.6/% (3,288 cases to 2,379), while the number of new infections decreased by 17.3% (2,525 cases to 2,088) from the previous week.
The number of local cases dropped by 17.1% (2,497 cases to 2,071), while imported cases were down by 39.3%, from 28 to 17.
Covid-19-related fatalities decreased 29.4% (34 cases to 24) and the average daily active cases for ME 3/2023 recorded a 7.9% (10,901 cases to 10,042) from the previous week.
He said surveillance at sentinel locations nationwide up till ME3/2023 found 17 influenza-like illness (ILI) samples to be positive, while severe acute respiratory onfection samples testing positive for Covid-19 was 5.9%. – Bernama