THE number of active Covid-19 cases rose to 53,248 yesterday after Malaysia reported more new infections than recoveries, the Health Ministry said.

Malaysia logged 4,915 new infections against 3,056 recoveries.

It was the 13th consecutive day new cases had outnumbered recoveries.

Although active infections continued to rise, most of the cases were in the milder categories. 

Of the total active cases, 45,883 patients were in home quarantine, 4,247 in low-risk quarantine centres and 2,998 in hospitals.

Yesterday, Malaysia saw 901 people hospitalised with the virus and eight deaths from infection.

The hospital utilisation rate was at 59.2%; coronavirus cases accounted for 30.7% of the take-up rate.

Ventilator utilisation was at 32.6% while intensive care unit occupancy was at 52.7% , of which 14.1% were Covid patients.

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

Selangor registered the most hospitalisations at 207, followed by Johor (198) and Sabah (107).

Other states and territories reporting new hospital patients were Sarawak (72), Kelantan (59), Negri Sembilan (56), Kuala Lumpur (48), Kedah (32), Perak (28), Pahang (24), Penang (20), Malacca (19), Perlis (13), Putrajaya (11) and Terengganu (7). 

Only Labuan did not report new patients in the wards.

Malacca posted the highest hospital bed utilisation rate, including for non-Covid cases, at 75.6%.

Of the 4,915 new cases reported yesterday, 99.2% of them were in the asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic categories while 0.8% were in the more severe categories of 3, 4 and 5. 

A total of 1,707 or 34.7% of the new cases were from the Klang Valley. Selangor had 1,269, Kuala Lumpur (409) and Putrajaya (29).

Other states and territories posting new cases were Johor (763), Kedah (420), Malacca (396), Sabah (373), Penang (326), Kelantan (279), Negri Sembilan (204), Pahang (204), Perak (130), Terengganu (67), Perlis (28) and Sarawak (18). 

Labuan again did not report new cases. 

Among the eight new deaths, one was classified dead on arrival (DOA), in Terengganu.

All the deaths were backdated. 

Three of the deaths occured in Perak, two in Johor, and one each in Malacca, Pahang and Terengganu. 

The Covid-19 death toll reached 31,965. 

The local virus mortality rate was at 0.3% while the two-week average for virus deaths stood at 37 per 10 million people. – January 31, 2022.