MALAYSIA continued reporting a downward trend in Covid-19 admissions as 931 people were hospitalised yesterday for the illness, the Health Ministry said.

The country has now reported fewer than 1,000 admissions for eight straight days. The last time Malaysia reported more than 1,000 admissions was on December 10, when 1,057 people were hospitalised.

According to the CovidNow website, the bed utilisation rate dropped to 62.5% yesterday compared to 66.1% the day before. Of the latest figure, 30.5% of the hospitalisations were linked to Covid-19.

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

The Klang Valley reported the greatest number of admissions at 281, with 247 cases in flood-hit Selangor, followed by Kuala Lumpur (23) and Putrajaya (11).

Coronavirus patients took up 57.4% of hospital beds in the Klang Valley.

Other states that reported new admissions were Johor (183), Kelantan (80), Sabah (76), Negri Sembilan (57), Sarawak (48), Terengganu (44), Kedah (37), Perak (32), Penang (31), Malacca (26), Pahang (20), Perlis (16).

Only Labuan did not report any new admission. However, the territory still had 40% of its beds being used by Covid-19 patients.

Among all states and territories, Kelantan had the highest bed utilisation for Covid-19 with 76.2% of beds occupied.

Meanwhile, Malaysia yesterday reported 4,083 fresh Covid-19 cases, the lowest in the past three days.

The Klang Valley accounted for 1,385 infections or 35% of the total cases.

Selangor reported 1,114 cases, Kuala Lumpur (236) and Putrajaya (35).

Other states that reported new cases were Kelantan (447), Johor (407), Malacca (272), Pahang (249), Penang (248), Kedah (237), Sabah (237), Perak (228), Terengganu (163), Negri Sembilan (128), Sarawak (41), Perlis (33) and Labuan (8).

Ventilator utilisation was at 37% while intensive care units (ICU) occupancy stood at 57%, of which 36.4% were coronavirus cases.

Active cases dropped to 54,094.

Among these, 45,577 patients were in home quarantine, 4,144 in low-risk quarantine centres, and 3,982 in hospital.

There were 391 cases in intensive care, 215 of them on ventilators. – December 19, 2021.