COVID-19 hospital admissions dropped for the third straight day, as the Ministry of Health reported 786 people requiring treatment yesterday. 

Malaysia has now reported fewer than 1,000 daily admissions for 23 days in a row. 

The CovidNow website showed 62.1% overall hospital utilisation yesterday, with the number for Covid-19 patients down to 27.6%.

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.

The Klang Valley region (260 cases) continued to report the highest number of infections by state or territory.

Selangor registered 231 of those cases, followed by Kuala Lumpur (16) and Putrajaya (13). 

Bed utilisation in the Klang Valley, including for non-Covid cases, was 55.2%.

Other states that reported new admissions were Johor (139), Sabah (85), Kelantan (57), Sarawak (51), Perak (41), Pahang (31), Negri Sembilan (30), Penang (25), Terengganu (24), Kedah (19), Perlis (14) and Malacca (10). 

There were no coronavirus linked admissions in Labuan. 

Although Malacca reported the fewest Covid-19 admissions yesterday, its overall bed utilisation was 78.5%, the highest by state or territory.

Meanwhile, Malaysia reported 2,882 fresh coronavirus cases yesterday. 

There were 888 cases in the Klang Valley – 734 in Selangor, 135 in Kuala Lumpur and 19 in Putrajaya – or 31% of yesterday’s new infections.

Other states and territories reporting new cases were Johor (407), Kelantan (275), Kedah (225), Pahang (203), Penang (166), Sabah (165), Perak (149), Malacca (148), Terengganu (122), Negri Sembilan (89), Sarawak (17), Labuan (15) and Perlis (13).

Ventilator utilisation was at 36.4% while intensive care unit wards were 54.7% occupied, of which 27.1% were due to coronavirus.

The number of active cases dropped to 40,606. Of the figure, 33,393 patients were in home quarantine, 3,460 in low-risk quarantine centres and 3,469 in hospital.

There were 284 people in intensive care, 156 of whom were on a ventilator. – January 3, 2022.