MALAYSIA is seeing a drop in Covid-19 hospitalisations for a third straight day as the Health Ministry reported 750 new admissions yesterday.

The country has now registered fewer than 1,000 hospital admissions for 15 straight days, a streak that started on January 6, which saw 920 people warded for the virus. 

The admissions yesterday were also the lowest in the last 10 days, only undone by the 748 hospitalisations reported on January 10.

The CovidNow website showed that hospital utilisation dropped to 62.2% yesterday from 64.3% the day before, while the bed take-up rate for coronavirus cases declined to 24.6% from 25.4% the day before. 

Ventilator utilisation was at 33.4% while intensive care unit (ICU) occupancy stood at 54%, of which 18.4% 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 region continued to post the most number of admissions at 220. Selangor accounted for 190 of them, Kuala Lumpur (27) and Putrajaya (3).

Hospital bed utilisation in the Klang Valley, including for non-Covid cases, dropped to 48.4% yesterday from 57.1% the day before. 

Other states and territories that reported new admissions were Johor (179), Sabah (95), Kelantan (58), Negri Sembilan (45), Sarawak (45), Perak (27), Kedah (24), Pahang (22), Terengganu (17), Penang (9), Malacca (5) and Perlis (4).

Labuan did not report any new admissions yesterday.

Malacca had the highest hospital bed utilisation at 83.6%, the only state with a bed take-up rate of above 80%.

Meanwhile, Malaysia registered 3,764 new Covid-19 cases yesterday, the highest in the past three weeks. 

Of the new cases, Klang Valley, comprising Selangor (894), Kuala Lumpur (476) and Putrajaya (20), logged a combined 1,390 or 37% of the total cases.

Other states and territories reporting new cases were Johor (414), Kelantan (360), Kedah (275), Sabah (256), Pahang (244), Penang (225), Negri Sembilan (218), Malacca (167), Perak (124), Terengganu (65), Sarawak (14), Perlis (11) and Labuan (1).

Active cases in the country once again increased by 488 to 41,617, with 3,254 recoveries reported yesterday.

Among those active cases, 34,722 patients were in home quarantine, 4,048 in low-risk quarantine centres and 2,687 in hospitals.

There were 160 patients in intensive care, 72 of them on ventilators. – January 21, 2022.