A TOTAL of 778 people of the 3,229 new Covid-19 cases reported yesterday were hospitalised, the Health Ministry said.

The number of admissions yesterday dropped to its lowest for the first time in nine days. The figure was only bettered on January 10 when 748 hospitalisations were reported.

Malaysia has now reported fewer than 1,000 hospital admissions for 14 straight days. The last time the country logged hospitalisations in four digits was on January 5, when 1,171 patients were admitted.

The CovidNow website showed that hospital utilisation was at 64.3% yesterday while the bed take-up rate for coronavirus cases declined slightly to 25.4% from 25.5% the day before.

Ventilator utilisation was at 31.2% while intensive care unit (ICU) occupancy stood at 53.7%, of which 18.6% were due to Covid.

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

The Klang Valley had the most number of admissions linked to the virus at 286. Selangor registered 243, Kuala Lumpur (25) and Putrajaya (18).

Bed take-up rate in the Klang Valley, including for non-Covid cases, dropped to 57.1% yesterday from 59.7% the day before.

Other states and territories that reported new admissions were Johor (174), Sabah (99), Kelantan (68), Sarawak (38), Negri Sembilan (27), Pahang (19), Perak (17), Kedah (13), Terengganu (12), Malacca (8), Perlis (8), Penang (8) and Labuan (1).

Overall bed utilisation in Malacca was at 85.7%, the only state with a bed take-up rate of above 80%.

Meanwhile, of the 3,229 coronavirus cases reported yesterday, the Klang Valley, comprising Selangor (776), Kuala Lumpur (352) and Putrajaya (22) accounted for 1,150 or 35.6% of the total cases.

Other states and territories reporting new cases were Johor (466), Kelantan (295), Kedah (259), Sabah (242), Negri Sembilan (181), Pahang (170), Penang (147), Perak (138), Malacca (77), Terengganu (68), Sarawak (21), Perlis (9) and Labuan (6).

Active cases in the country increased by 368 to 41,129 with fewer 2,848 recoveries reported.

Among those active cases, 34,253 patients were in home quarantine, 3,989 in low-risk quarantine centres and 2,725 in hospitals.

There were 162 people in intensive care, 76 of them on ventilators. – January 20, 2022.