KUALA LUMPUR: The number of admissions of COVID-19 patients to public hospitals per 100,000 population in the ninth Epidemiological Week 2023 (ME 9/2023) compared to ME 8/2023 increased by 33 per cent for categories one to five, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said the number of COVID-19 recovery cases between ME 8/2023 and ME 9/2023 (Feb 26 to March 4) increased by 5.2 percent (1,367 to 1,438 cases), while for recovery cases, it recorded a drop of 8.8 per cent (1,497 to 1,365 cases) and an increase for 300 per cent for death cases (two to eight cases).

"For COVID-19 positive cases monitored by the COVID-19 Assessment Centre (CAC) nationwide, it shows a decrease and a comparison of the physical CAC data reported in ME 9/2023 from the previous week shows that the number of patient arrivals to the CAC dropped by 12.2 per cent.

"The number of new COVID-19 cases undergoing monitoring at home increased by 321.7 per cent and the number of COVID-19 cases referred by CAC to hospital decreased by 14.3 percent," he said in a statement today.

According to Dr Noor Hisham, said the cumulative number of cases reported from Jan 25, 2020, (ME 4/2020) to March 4, 2023, (ME 9/2023) was 5,043,626 cases, while the cumulative number of recovery cases was 4,997,806.

"The average number of active cases is 8,851, the cumulative number of death is 36,965 cases and the cumulative number of clusters is 7,172 with two active clusters," he said.

Regarding the percentage of COVID-19 bed usage, he said, there was an increase of one per cent from ME 9/2023 to ME 8/2023 for non-critical beds, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) beds remain unchanged at two per cent and the percentage of COVID-19 patients requiring respiratory assistance (ABP) decreased to 0.2 per cent.

"The number of admissions of COVID-19 patients to health facilities per 100,000 residents remained at 2.8 per cent in ME 9/2023 from Feb 26 to March 4 compared to ME 8/2023," he said.

He said the surveillance of Influenza-like Illnesses (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Infections (SARI) for COVID-19 by the Ministry of Health at sentinel locations nationwide detected 17 ILI samples positive for COVID-19 with a positive rate of 2.4 percent in ME 9/2023.

There were no SARI samples that tested positive for COVID-19 in the same week, he added.

-- BERNAMA