COVID-19 hospital admissions continued to decline this week, with the Ministry of Health reporting 672 people needing specialist treament yesterday.

The ministry had reported at least 900 fresh admissions a day for eight days to Sunday, when it recorded 768 cases requiring treatment.

According to the CovidNow website, nationwide bed utilisation is now 64.4%. Of that figure, only 29.3% were linked to Covid-19, which was a drop from 30.4% previously. 

Hospital admission indicates the severity of the virus while hospital utilisation includes bed usage, as well as the number of patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) and on ventilators.

The Klang Valley continued to report the most admissions by states or territory, with 181 new cases. Most of which (143) were in Selangor, while Kuala Lumpur reported 22 and Putrajaya 16.

Bed utilisation is currently 68.9% in Selangor, including non-Covid-19 patients. 

Other states reporting fresh admissions were Johor (158), Sabah (75), Kelantan (61), Sarawak (48) Terengganu (35), Perak (30), Negri Sembilan (22), Kedah (16), Pahang (14), Penang (12), and Perlis and Malacca (10 each).

Labuan reported no new admissions. Meanwhile, Kelantan was the only state to report an overall bed utilisation of more than 80%.  

Director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah yesterday said the number of new Covid-19 infections in the country had dropped from 3,108 to 2,589.

The Klang Valley accounted for 596 infections, with Selangor reporting 380 cases, Kuala Lumpur 186 and Putrajaya 30.

Other states that reported new cases were Johor (355), Kedah (277), Kelantan (249), Terengganu (232), Penang (225), Pahang (168), Sabah (122), Perak (112), Negri Sembilan (101), Malacca (88), Sarawak (36), Perlis (20) and Labuan (8).

As of midnight, there were 52,218 active Covid-19 cases in Malaysia. Of this number, 379 cases were in the intensive care unit (ICU), with 210 requiring respiratory support.

Overall ventilator utilisation in hospitals was 37.4%. While ICU occupancy was 57.4%, of which 35.3% were coronavirus cases.

A total of 44,201 patients were in home quarantine, 3,872 in low-risk quarantine centres and 3,766 in hospital. – December 21, 2021.