New Covid-19 infections down almost 18% last week

The number of new Covid-19 infections dropped 17.9% to 18,715 cases in the 34th epidemiology week (ME 34/2022) from Aug 21 to 27, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today.

He said a total of 60 deaths were recorded during the same period, an increase of 7.1% from the previous week.

"The number of recoveries in ME 34 decreased by 5.4% from 26,458 cases to 25,037.

"The average number of active daily cases during ME 34 was 36,179, down by 13.9% from ME 33," he said in a statement on the Covid-19 situation today.

In the meantime, admissions of Covid-19 patients into public hospitals and Covid-19 quarantine and treatment centres (PKRCs) per 100,000 population dropped by 15.8% for those in Category One and Two, and 15.2% for those in Category Three and above. 
 
Noor Hisham said the percentage of Covid-19 bed occupancy in ME 34 for non-critical beds, intensive care unit beds and PKRCs decreased by 3%, 2% and 1%, respectively.

The number of Covid-19 patients requiring respiratory assistance meanwhile reduced by 0.3% compared to the previous week.

There was also a drop in the number of positive cases monitored by Covid-19 assessment centres (CACs) nationwide.

"The number of patient visits to CACs decreased by 13%. New Covid-19 cases undergoing home monitoring dropped by 19.5%, and the number of Covid-19 cases referred by CACs to hospitals decreased by 26%," Noor Hisham said, adding that the infectivity rate or Rt also showed a drop of 5.3% in ME 34.