COVID-19 deaths must now be reported to the Health Ministry within 72 hours, said the health minister.

Khairy Jamaluddin said this is part of improving the reporting process by eliminating red tape, so fatalities are reported in a timely manner by healthcare facilities.

“Previously, reports on (coronavirus) deaths were announced only after the case registration process was completed at the state level. Sometimes, it takes a long time before the deaths were announced,” he told a press conference at Serdang Hospital today.

“Therefore, there are cases pending to be announced, and this is one of the factors that has contributed to the backlog of Covid-19 death announcements.

“To ensure the timeliness of reporting, death reports no longer need to wait for the case registration process and must be made within 72 hours of the death occurring.

“As of yesterday, the average turnaround time for Covid-19 death reporting is three days. This information is also displayed on the CovidNow portal.”

Malaysia reported 115 coronavirus deaths yesterday, the highest since October 7, when it reported 132 deaths.

Of the fresh fatalities, Khairy said not all occurred on that day. Only 62 occurred within the last 72 hours.

On the highly infectious Omicron variant and move towards endemicity, Khairy said the public should not refer to the number of deaths per day, but instead look at the case fatality rate (CFR).

“Up to yesterday, the country recorded a CFR of 0.2%. The cumulative CFR rate is 0.9%.” – March 3, 2022.