COVID-19 hospitalisations hovered in the range of 800 for the third straight day as the Health Ministry reported 804 admissions yesterday.

The country has reported fewer than a thousand admissions for 17 consecutive days.

The CovidNow website showed the bed utilisation rate yesterday increased to 63.8%. However, bed utilisation for coronavirus patients dropped to 27.6% yesterday as compared to 27.8% the day before.

The hospital admission rate indicates the severity of the virus. Hospital utilisation includes bed usage as well as the number of patients in intensive care units and on ventilators.

The Klang Valley logged total daily admissions of 241; Selangor accounted for 208 of them, Kuala Lumpur (18), and Putrajaya (15).

Bed utilisation in the Klang Valley, including for non-Covid cases, stood at 57.8%.

Other states that reported new admissions were Johor (215), Sabah (65), Kelantan (52), Sarawak (40), Perak (37), Terengganu (33), Negri Sembilan (28), Kedah (27), Pahang (24), Penang (18), Malacca (18), Perlis (5), Labuan (1).

Malacca continues to report the highest bed utilisation rate at 78.7%.

As of noon yesterday, Malaysia logged 2,757 new Covid-19 cases.

The Klang Valley comprising Selangor (565), Kuala Lumpur (135) and Putrajaya (11) accounted for a combined 711 cases or 25.8% of the total cases yesterday.

Other states and territories reporting new cases were Johor with 361, Kelantan (346), Kedah (273), Penang (197), Perak (189), Pahang (180), Terengganu (172), Sabah (125), Negri Sembilan (92), Malacca (76), Sarawak (21), Perlis (13) and Labuan (1).

Ventilator utilisation was at 36.4% while ICU occupancy stood at 55.2%, of which 36.4% were coronavirus cases.

Active cases dropped to 42,917.

Among these, 36,052 patients were in home quarantine, 3,071 in low-risk quarantine centres and 3,497 in hospital.

There were 297 cases in intensive care, 169 of them on ventilators. – December 28, 2021.