Slight drop in new Covid-19 cases last week

A total of 13,627 new Covid-19 cases were recorded during the 37th epidemiological week (ME 37/2022) from Sept 11 to 17 compared to 14,072 in ME 36/2022, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today.

He said this marked a drop of 3.2%. 

"The average daily active cases for ME 37/2022 was 26,378, a decrease of 4.1% compared to the week before," he said in a statement on the current Covid-19 situation.

He said 31 deaths were logged in ME 37/2022, a drop of 8.8% from 34 cases the week earlier.

Recoveries were also lower, by 16%, at 14,513 for ME 37/2022 compared to 17,286 the week earlier.

The admission of Covid-19 patients to public hospitals for every 100,000 population in ME 37/2022 dropped 6.7% for patients in Category One and Two. There was no change for patients in Category Three and above. 

"The percentage of Covid-19 bed occupancy showed a fall of 1% for non-critical beds while beds usage at ICUs and low-risk treatment centres fell by 2%.

"There was no change to the percentage of Covid-19 patients on ventilators," he said adding that the number of positive cases being monitored by Covid-19 Assessment Centres nationwide was also lower.

On the RT or infectivity rate, Noor Hisham said this increased to 0.96 in ME 37/2022 compared to 0.92 the week before.