COVID-19 admissions drop 27.1 pct last week - Health DG

He said admissions of categories one and two patients to public hospitals per 100,000 population last week also declined by 36.4 per cent from ME 1/2023, while categories three, four and five admissions dropped by 41.7 per cent.

"The utilisation rates of non-critical and ICU beds decreased by two per cent respectively in ME 2/2023 compared to the previous week," he said in a statement today.

He said there was also a decline in the number of cases monitored by COVID-19 Assessment Centres (CAC) nationwide and cases referred by CAC to hospitals.

According to Dr Noor Hisham, Malaysia's cumulative COVID-19 infections from Jan 25, 2020 to Jan 14, 2023 stood at 5,032,433, while cumulative recoveries were 4,985,263 cases.

The cumulative figure for COVID-19 fatalities was 36,908 cases, and the total clusters were 7,167 with five active clusters, he added.

Dr Noor Hisham said the total number of recovered cases in ME 2/2023 dropped by 13 per cent (3,781 cases to 3,288 cases), while the number of new infections decreased by 21.9 per cent (3,231 cases to 2,525 cases) from the previous week.

The number of local cases dropped by 22.3 per cent from 3,213 cases to 2,497 cases, while imported cases rose by 55.6 per cent from 18 cases to 28 cases.

"As for COVID-19-related fatalities, the figure increased by 61.9 per cent (21 cases to 34 cases) in ME2/2023. The infectivity rate (Rt) for last week stood at 0.89," he said.

Meanwhile, the surveillance at sentinel locations nationwide found 27 samples of Influenza-like Illness (ILI) to be COVID-19 positive at the rate of 3.4 per cent, while Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI) samples testing positive for COVID-19 was 1.7 per cent.