MALAYSIA reported 116 Covid-19 deaths in the 24 hours up to midnight, a significant drop from the 487 fatalities reported the previous day.

The figure is also significantly lower than the 300 or so deaths reported daily over the past week.

According to data from the Health Ministry’s Git.hub raw data repository, only one of 116 fatalities took place yesterday.

The remaining 115 were backlog cases that had not been reported previously. Meanwhile, 29 cases were declared dead on arrival.

The cumulative Covid-19 death toll is now 24,681.

The ministry derives the daily figure from the sum total of the number of reported deaths on a given day, including backlog cases only just confirmed by the health authorities after completing their clinical investigations.

Similarly, Selangor’s daily death toll dropped by more than 80% to 33 from 178 the previous day. Twelve of the 33 fatalities were declared dead on arrival.

Other states and federal territories reporting deaths yesterday were: Kelantan (10), Penang (20), Sabah (eight), Perak (six), Kuala Lumpur (17), Sarawak (14), Kedah (one) and Malacca (seven).

In Perak, only one of its six reported deaths actually took place yesterday, while the other five were backlog cases.

No deaths were reported in Negri Sembilan, Johor, Pahang, Perlis, Terengganu, Labuan or Putrajaya.

The national average was 5.9 deaths per population of 100,000, with Penang reporting 15.6 deaths per 100,000, the highest figure by region.

The seven-day average for actual deaths was 92 cases.

Meanwhile, 13,754 new Covid-19 cases were reported yesterday, which brought the cumulative total to 2,156,678.

According to the CovidNow website, there are currently 198,284 active cases in the country, with 165,421 patients or 83.4% quarantined at home, 21,350 (10.8%) at low risk quarantine centres and 10,396 (5.2%) in hospitals.

Of the active cases 1,117 are receiving treatment in intensive care units, with 615 of those patients requiring respiratory support. – September 24, 2021.