Drop in number of new COVID-19 cases, death last week - Health DG

KUALA LUMPUR: The number of new COVID-19 cases in the 39th epidemiological week (epi week) from Sept 25 to Oct 1 dropped 5.2 per cent to 12,291 from 12,963 cases during the previous week (from Sept 18 to 24), said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said during the 39th epi week, there were 12,260 cases, from 12,934 cases during the 38th epi week, while the imported cases increased by 6.9 percent to 31 cases in the 39th epi week, from 29 cases in the 38th epi week.

"Death cases due to COVID-19 in the 39th epi week decreased by 35 percent to 26 cases from 40 cases in the 38th epi week, while the average daily active cases for the same week decreased by 2.5 percent to 24,713 cases from the previous week," he said in a statement today.

On the number of recovery cases, he said, it dropped by 8.4 percent to 12,534 cases in the 3ith epi week, from 13,677 cases the previous week.

Dr Noor Hisham said that based on the CAC physical data that was reported for the 38th and 39th epi week, it was found that the number of patient arrivals to CAC decreased by nine percent, while the number of COVID-19 cases undergoing home monitoring decreased by 53.5 percent.

On the trend of daily active COVID-19 cases that were monitored virtually, he said it dropped to 27,486 at the end of the 39th week, from 30,819 cases at the end of the 38th epi week.

He said the number of COVID-19 cases referred by CAC to hospitals had increased by 8.2 percent ilast week, while the number of COVID-19 admissions to public hospitals per 100,000 population in the 39th week recorded a decrease of 7.7 percent for category one and two patients, while category three, four and five patients decreased by 13.0 percent, from the previous week.

According to Dr Noor Hisham, the usage of COVID-19 beds in the 39th week dropped by one percent for non-critical beds, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds (three per cent) and remained at zero percent for beds at the low risk tCOVID-19 Treatment Centre (PKRC).

On COVID-19 patients requiring ventilators, he said, the number decreased by 0.4 percent in the 39th epi week.

With the new cases reported during the 39th epi week, Dr Noor Hisham said the cumulative number of COVID-19 reported in the country since Jan 25, 2020 was 4,842,505 cases, with a cumulative number of cured cases totaling 4,781,138.

The cumulative number of death due to COVID-19 is 36,374 cases, while the cumulative number of clusters is 7,081 cases with 13 clusters still active, he added.

-- BERNAMA