THE Health Ministry has reported 78 Covid-19 deaths as of midnight yesterday, taking the death toll from the coronavirus to 27,191. 

This is the second time this week that the country has logged deaths in double digits, with the previous being 76 deaths on October 4.

According to the ministry’s GitHub raw data repository, 23 of the fatalities were classified as dead on arrival (DOA), taking the total deaths under this category to 5,473. 

Only two deaths were reported to have occurred yesterday with the remaining being backlog cases that were previously unreported. These would be backtracked to the actual day the deaths occurred. 

The figure is the total number of deaths that occurred 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.

Johor reported the highest number of fatalities, at 13, where six of them were DOA cases. 

The data also shows that one victim was fully vaccinated. The person was the only one to have a vaccination record among the rest.

Other states and territories reporting deaths are Sabah and Selangor with 12 each, Penang (10), Kelantan and Sarawak (eight each), Kedah and Perak (four each), Perlis and Kuala Lumpur (two each), and Malacca, Negri Sembilan and Pahang (one each). 

There were no coronavirus-related deaths in Terengganu, Labuan and Putrajaya. 

Apart from the six DOA cases in Johor, other DOA cases were reported in Kelantan (four); Kedah, Penang, Sabah, Sarawak and Selangor (two each); and Malacca, Perak and Kuala Lumpur (one each).

According to the ministry’s CovidNow website, the national average for deaths per 100,000 people in the past six months is 7.9. Selangor has the highest with 13.9 deaths per population of 100,000.

The active Covid-19 caseload dropped further to 125,998 after Malaysia reported 12,724 recoveries against 9,751 new cases.

Of these cases, 100,844 patients – or 80% – are in home quarantine, 16,481 (13.1%) are at low-risk quarantine centres and 7,881 (6.3%) are in hospitals.

Of those admitted in hospitals, 792 are in intensive care, 385 of which require respiratory support. – October 9, 2021.