THE number of Covid-19 fatalities fell by more than 50% in the week between October 3 and 9, compared with the week earlier, in line with all other key indicators, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said. 

In a statement, the health director-general said the number of fatalities dropped by 50.2% to 700 deaths in the week under review, with an average of 100 cases a day. 

“As a whole, the Health Ministry found that all key indicators such as daily cases, active cases, deaths, intensive care unit (ICU) admissions and ventilators have been on the downtrend since the 34th epidemiological week,” he said.

The number of new cases fell by 23.6% to 63,722 from 83,368 the week earlier. This was the sixth consecutive week the number of new cases has been on a decline. 

Similarly, there was a 9% drop in critical care admissions (778 cases) and 11.2% for those needing respiratory assistance (331). 

Of the 16,199 hospital beds allocated for Covid-19, 8,164 was occupied in the 40th epidemiological week. This is a 5% decrease from the week before. 

As for ICU beds, there was a 7% drop, whereby 831 out of the 1,514 beds allotted for Covid-19 care were occupied, while utilisation of ventilators fell by 3% to 1,267. 

In line with the positive development, Noor Hisham advised the public not to let their guard down. 

“We should heed the lessons from past incidents of exponential surges of Covid-19 cases, which paralysed the economic and social sectors,” he said. 

He said all quarters have an important role to play in the reopening safely initiative. 

Therefore, he reminded people to always comply with the standard operating procedure and self-regulate by Testing, Reporting, Isolating, Informing, and Seeking, especially with the lifting of the interstate travel ban. – October 11, 2021.