Covid-19 death toll almost 25,000 after 487 more fatalities reported on Wednesday (Sept 22)

PUTRAJAYA: Malaysia’s Covid-19 death toll has reached 24,565 after the Health Ministry reported 487 more coronavirus deaths on Wednesday (Sept 22).

Based on the ministry’s Github data repository, seven out of the 487 deaths occurred on Wednesday, while the rest are backlogged cases that were not confirmed previously.

Of the reported deaths on Wednesday, 161 were fatalities classified as “brought-in-dead” (BID) cases, bringing the total of BID cases in the country up to 4,809.

Based on the latest graphs on the ministry’s CovidNow website, the country’s death cases are still on a declining trend.

The average number of deaths in the last seven days based on the actual date of death has been in decline from early August, when the average was around 300 death cases a day.

Out of the 487 reported deaths on Wednesday, 222 of them were Klang Valley cases.

The rest were in Sabah (87 deaths), Johor (63), Penang (36), Kelantan (26), Perak (18), Kedah (14), Pahang (five), Negri Sembilan (five), Melaka (five), Terengganu (three), Perlis (two) and Sarawak (one).

Putrajaya and Labuan had no new reported deaths.

On Wednesday, Malaysia reported 14,985 new Covid-19 cases and 19,702 recoveries and recoveries have outnumbered new cases for six days in a row.

Additionally, the number of active Covid-19 cases in the country continues to go down, with the latest number at 201,274 - a further reduction of 5,199 from the previous day.

Of the total active cases, 168,258 or 83.6% are patients with mild infections and are undergoing home quarantine.

Another 21,581 (10.7%) are those under isolation at low-risk quarantine centres (PKRC), while 10,321 (5.1%) are hospitalised.

There are 1,114 (0.5%) patients in intensive care units (ICU), including 615 (0.3%)who are on ventilators.

The national ICU utilisation rate is currently at 74.8% and with 75 ICU beds utilised in Penang, the state’s ICU utilisation rate is the highest in the country at 99.2%.

The Klang Valley’s ICU rate is at 78.6%.