THE Health Ministry reported 258 coronavirus-related deaths yesterday, 75 of which were declared dead on arrival (DOA).

According to the ministry’s GitHub data repository, only four of the 258 deaths occurred yesterday.

The remaining 254 were backlog cases that were previously unreported. These would be backdated to the days the deaths actually took place.

The death toll now stands at 25,695.

The daily death figure is the sum total of the deaths that occur on the day plus backlog reports of deaths, or deaths that have just been confirmed by the health authorities to be due to Covid-19 upon completion of investigation.

Because of this, daily death numbers could vary from the actual number of deaths that have occurred on the day of the report while the backlog is being cleared.

The data also showed that two of the deceased were fully vaccinated. Both were in Pahang.

Selangor accounted for 56 of the total daily deaths, Johor (53), Kedah (46), Kuala Lumpur (25), Penang (21), Sarawak (19), Sabah (12), Kelantan, Pahang, Perak (five each), Malacca and Terengganu (four each), Perlis (two) and Negri Sembilan (one).

No coronavirus deaths were reported in Labuan and Putrajaya.

Of the four deaths that took place yesterday, three were in Pahang and one in Johor.

As for the DOA cases, 24 of them were in Kuala Lumpur.

Other states reporting DOA cases were Selangor with 25, Johor (seven), Sabah (five), Penang (four), Terengganu and Kedah (three each), Sarawak (two), Malacca and Perak (one each).

According to the CovidNow website, the national average was 5.5 deaths per population of 100,000 with Penang reporting the highest average at 14.4 deaths per population of 100,000.

The seven-day average for deaths was 87 cases.

The active Covid-19 caseload in the country further dropped to 177,560 after Malaysia reported 16,430 recoveries against 10,959 new infections.

Among the active cases, 147,848, or 83.3%, were in home quarantine, 19,180 (10.8%) in low-risk quarantine centres and 9,554 (5.4%) in hospitals.

Of those in hospitals, 978 were in intensive care units, with 576 on ventilator support. – September 28, 2021.