A TOTAL of 868 people were hospitalised with Covid-19 yesterday, among the 3,573 new infections logged on the last day of the year, the Health Ministry said.

Hospital admissions had hovered around 900 in the previous three days. 

Malaysia has now reported fewer than a thousand daily admissions for 21 days in a row. 

The CovidNow website showed the bed utilisation rate declined to 62.5% yesterday from 65.8% the day before. Coronavirus patients accounted for 28.1% of bed usage.

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

In the Klang Valley, Selangor registered 255 virus hospitalisations, Kuala Lumpur (17) and Putrajaya (14). 

Bed utilisation in the Klang Valley, including for non-Covid cases, stood at 59.7%.

Other states that reported new admissions were Johor (199), Sabah (83), Kelantan (75), Negri Sembilan (51), Sarawak (38), Perak (34), Kedah (27), Pahang (25), Terengganu (21), Penang (17), Malacca and Perlis (6 each).

Labuan did not report any new admissions yesterday. 

Bed utilisation continued to rise, to 82.6%, in Malacca, the only state with a bed take-up rate above 80%. 

The Klang Valley comprising Selangor (949), Kuala Lumpur (205) and Putrajaya (24) accounted for 1,178 (33%) of yesterday’s new infections.

Cases in Selangor have stayed above 900 in the past three days. The last time the most populous state reported daily cases in this high range was on December 23, when it logged 951.

Other states and territories reporting new cases were Johor (382), Kelantan (379), Pahang (315), Penang (238), Sabah (231), Kedah (200), Perak (175), Negri Sembilan (154), Malacca (150), Terengganu (135), Perlis (15), Sarawak (14) and Labuan (7). 

Ventilator utilisation was at 37.2% while ICU occupancy stood at 51.7%, of which 25.6% were due to coronavirus.

Active cases dropped to 41,221.

Among these, 34,069 patients were in home quarantine, 3,368 in low-risk quarantine centres and 3,515 in hospital.

There were 269 people in intensive care, 163 of them on ventilators. – January 1, 2022.