THE Health Ministry reported 208 Covid-19 fatalities as of midnight yesterday, taking the number of deaths from the epidemic to 26,143.

According to the ministry’s GitHub data repository, 64 cases were dead on arrival (DOA).

Meanwhile, only four of the 208 deaths occurred yesterday.

The remaining 204 were backlog cases that were previously unreported. These would be backtracked to the days the deaths actually took place.

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 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 208 victims had vaccination history, where one was partially vaccinated and the other one fully vaccinated.

The two partially and fully vaccinated death cases were reported in Johor.

Of the deaths, Selangor topped the list with 76 deaths, of which 28 were DOA.

Meanwhile, Johor was the second highest with 30 deaths. Nine were DOA cases.

Other states and territories that reported new deaths are Sabah with 22, Kedah (12), Penang (30), Kuala Lumpur, Pahang and Perlis (4 each), Sarawak (2), Kelantan (9), Perak (8), and Terengganu (7).

Negri Sembilan, Malacca, Labuan and Putrajaya did not record any coronavirus-related deaths.

Besides the DOA cases in Johor and Selangor, Sabah had 8, Penang (7), Kuala Lumpur (3), Terengganu (2) and Kelantan (2), Kedah, Pahang, and Sarawak (1 each).

According to the ministry’s CovidNow website, the national average deaths per 100,000 population was 5.6. Penang has the highest with 14.0 deaths per population of 100,000.

The seven-day average for deaths was 88 cases.

The active Covid-19 caseload in the country dropped to 169,718 after Malaysia reported 17,000 recoveries against 12,434 new cases. 

On the breakdown of the active cases, 140,598 patients or 82.8% are under home quarantine, 18,957 (11.2%) at low-risk quarantine centres and 9,185 (5.4%) in hospitals.

Of those admitted in hospitals, 978 are in intensive care units, with 565 on ventilator support. – September 30, 2021.