MALAYSIA reported a record 592 Covid-19 deaths yesterday, 360 of them in Selangor alone, pushing up the death toll to 20,419.

The previous highest daily death toll was on August 26, when 393 deaths were recorded. 

Yesterday’s daily death figure was issued at 1.30am today. Of the total, 88 were dead on arrival, with Kedah accounting for 33 of them.

However, the actual number of deaths on September 11 was 100, according to data on the Health Ministry’s new CovidNow website, where information is updated daily after midnight.

In a note about yesterday’s 592 deaths, the website states that the number was backdated, particularly to include fatalities where time was needed to ascertain the cause.

“Therefore, trends should be observed from the series based on date of death (actual deaths).”

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said last Monday that the high daily death numbers were due to a backlog in reporting fatalities. 

“There is a long backlog of death cases as we need to confirm if the deceased really did di due to Covid-19. These deaths did not happen over 24 hours,” he said in Kota Kinabalu. 

Malaysia has seen daily cases hover around the 20,000 mark in the past month despite the high vaccination rate, and daily deaths have exceeded 200. 

According to the Health Ministry, Selangor yesterday saw the highest number of virus deaths in Malaysia at 360, two of which were dead on arrival. 

Sabah was next with 53 deaths, 20 of which were DOA, followed by Kedah with 49 (33), Perak 28 (4), Penang 27 (8), Negri Sembilan 14 (4), Kelantan 11 (3), Johor 10 (7), Sarawak 10 (3), Malacca 9 (1), Kuala Lumpur 8 (1), Pahang 6 (1),  Terengganu 6 (1), and Perlis 1. 

Only the federal territories of Labuan and Putrajaya did not log any coronavirus deaths. – September 12, 2021.