DG: Almost a third of Covid-19 deaths in third wave happened before reaching hospital

Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today said almost a third of all Covid-19 deaths in the third wave were brought in dead (BID), meaning they died before reaching the hospital.

It was revealed that 35 cases of the 110 deaths in the third wave so far were brought in dead.

“So far, the total number of BID is 44 cases. Of those 44 cases, there were nine BID cases in the second wave.

“For the third wave, in Sabah specifically, there were 35 BID cases,” Noor Hisham said during his daily press conference at the Health Ministry in Putrajaya.

A Health Ministry officer later said there were a total of 136 deaths during the second wave and 110 deaths in the third wave so far.

Noor Hisham also said they had forensic experts to Sabah in order to facilitate the compliance of standard operating procedures (SOP) in handling BID cases.

Previously, the director-general had said that their research found that the Covid-19 virus could be detected on the bodies of those who died from the disease.

Today, Noor Hisham also announced eight new deaths with seven of them coming from Sabah.

Of the eight new deaths today, five of them, all from Sabah, had case numbers which indicated that they either died before reaching the hospital or died soon after arriving.

Sabah has consistently recorded new Covid deaths every day for the past three weeks.

Noor Hisham also revealed that a total of 949 healthcare officers have tested positive for Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic, with a majority of them contracting the disease from the community.

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