THE recent sharp increase in Covid-19 deaths is correlated to the surge in the number of new infections in recent weeks, said medical experts.

Malaysia, for the first time on May 12, reported 39 deaths related to the coronavirus. The record prior to that was 27, just two days earlier.

On May 15, 44 deaths were reported, the first time the daily death toll crossed the 40 mark. This was followed by 45 fatalities two days later but even that record was broken yesterday with 47 deaths, taking the national death toll to 1,994.

Malaysian Public Health Physicians’ Association president Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar said it is natural for the number of fatalities to increase in tandem with the spike in the number of fresh cases.

He said there has a been a rise in Category 3 cases of late and fatalities reported among young people.

There are five categories of Covid-19 infections: Category 1 – positive cases with no symptoms, Category 2 – positive cases with mild symptoms, Category 3 – positive cases with pneumonia, Category 4 – patients with pneumonia who require oxygen and Category 5 – cases that require respiratory assistance.

Universiti Putra Malaysia medical epidemiologist Associate Prof Dr Malina Osman agreed with Zainal on the correlation between caseload and deaths.

“Based on observations so far, the number of deaths is correlated with the number of active and new cases. The higher the number of cases, the higher the number of deaths,” she told The Malaysian Insight.

“In my opinion, this is very much related to the burden on the healthcare system; the more patients we have, the more strain is put under,” she said.

Malina added that the presence of new variants of the virus could contribute to the rapid increase of cases, which in turn leads to infections becoming more severe and requiring diligent care.

Virologist Dr Chee Hui Yee from the faculty of medicine and health sciences at Universiti Putra Malaysia said there are two possibilities for the increase in the number of fatalities.

Chee said there is a possibility that a virulent local variant is doing its rounds.

Apart from that, she said late admission of patients in Categories 3 and 4 due to home quarantine and their lack of experience in self-monitoring, could be another cause for the increase in the number of deaths.

“Another reason could be the lack of immediate treatment due to overload of Category 4 patients. Some people may be too serious and don’t have the luxury of time to wait for a bed. Their conditions may deteriorate,” she said.

Chee added that the number of cases brought in dead has also been on the rise, as some patients may not know how to self-regulate when under home quarantine or some simply may not be aware that they were infected, as they had not tested for Covid-19.

Zainal, meanwhile, said the Ministry of Health should provide more data on the variants that are doing their rounds and their role in the number of deaths, so that experts outside the ministry will also be able to perform their own analyses.

He also added that more data is required on patients brought in dead.

More young people getting infected

Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah had recently warned that more young people were getting infected with worsening symptoms.

He said that between the beginning of this year and May 7, Covid-19 infections were the highest among those aged 20 to 29, with 1,531 cases. This was followed by those aged 30 to 39, with 1,452 cases.

According to data compiled by The Malaysian Insight, from March 17, 2020 till May 16, 2021, there were 13 deaths reported among those below the age of 19, 23 fatalities among those aged 20 to 29 and 79 deaths among those aged 30 to 39.

The health experts attributed this to the lack of compliance to Covid-19 standard operating procedure (SOP).

Malina observed that many young people have taken SOP compliance lightly and some are even treating it as a joke.

She said some do not even wear their masks properly.

On the severe symptoms, she said this could be due to late diagnosis and treatment.

Zainal, on the other hand, said the young are an active lot who have plenty of exposure and interaction with other people.

Besides lack of compliance to the SOPs, he said some may have been mingling with asymptomatic patients.

Chee, meanwhile, said besides SOP violation, this could also be due to the virulent variants. – May 19, 2021.