A TOTAL of 998 Covid-19 patients were admitted to hospital yesterday, the Health Ministry said.

The CovidNow website shows that hospital utilisation increased to 64.6% yesterday while the bed take-up rate for coronavirus cases went up to 27.7% from 26.7% the day before. 

Despite this, Malaysia has reported fewer than 1,000 hospital admissions for 25 straight days.

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 had the highest number of hospital admissions, at 395.

Selangor registered 221 of those cases, followed by Kuala Lumpur (147) and Putrajaya (27). 

Bed utilisation in the Klang Valley, including for non-Covid cases, rose to 57.5%. 

Other states that reported new hospital admissions were Johor (174), Sabah (106), Negri Sembilan (73), Kelantan (61), Kedah (38), Perak (33), Sarawak (29), Terengganu (23), Pahang (22), Penang (21), Malacca (14) and Perlis (9).

Only Labuan did not report any new admission related to Covid-19. 

Kedah’s hospital utilisation rate was at 81.8%, the highest by any state or territory. 

Meanwhile, Malaysia reported 2,842 new coronavirus cases yesterday. 

The Klang Valley registered 755 new infections or 26.6% of overall cases with Selangor accounting for 514 infections, followed by Kuala Lumpur (204) and Putrajaya (35).

Other states and territories reporting new cases were Kelantan (397), Johor (284), Sabah (258), Kedah (237), Penang (230), Pahang (146), Terengganu (138), Negri Sembilan (117), Malacca (105), Perak (101), Perlis (45), Sarawak (24) and Labuan (5).

Ventilator utilisation was at 35.7% while intensive care unit wards were 52.3% occupied, of which 24.5% were due to the coronavirus.

The number of active cases dropped to 39,682.

Of the figure, 32,421 patients were in home quarantine, 3,522 in low-risk quarantine centres and 3,487 in hospital.

There were 252 people in intensive care, 134 of whom were on a ventilator. – January 5, 2022.