Covid-19 deaths (Jan 23): 14 reported fatalities, total at 31,882

COVID-19 | The Health Ministry reported 14 Covid-19 fatalities yesterday (Jan 22), bringing the cumulative death toll to 31,882.

The daily reported deaths have been above 10 for four consecutive days.

From the newly reported deaths yesterday, none died before they could receive treatment at a hospital.

Malaysia has the highest number of deaths per capita in the Asean and East Asian regions with 966 deaths per 1 million population, and fourth-worst in Asia after Iran, Lebanon, and Jordan – all in the Middle East.

The deaths were in Johor (2), Kedah (2), Perak (2), Selangor (2), Terengganu (2), Malacca (1), Pahang (1), Sabah (1) and Kuala Lumpur (1).

No new deaths were reported in Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, Perlis, Penang, Sarawak, Labuan, and Putrajaya.

A total of 12 out of the 14 reported deaths, or 85.7 percent, happened in the last seven days.

The remaining deaths happened more than a week ago but were only recorded yesterday due to delays in data reporting.

The seven-day average of Covid-19 deaths was 14. Compared to the 30-day average of 21, this indicates a downtrend in Covid-19 deaths.

To date, 684 Covid-19 deaths have been reported this month.

A total of 1,174 Covid-19 deaths were reported in December 2021, 1,612 in November 2021, 2,704 in October 2021, and 9,678 in September 2021.

As of yesterday, there were 44,088 active Covid-19 cases. This is an increase of 8.1 percent from the 40,785 active infections a week ago.

Compared to 30 days ago, the number of active cases has fallen by 7.9 percent from 47,866.

The Health Ministry's post-midnight update also provided further insights into the new Covid-19 infections yesterday.

From the 4,116 new cases yesterday, 441 of them could be traced to ongoing Covid-19 clusters.

The cluster-linked cases were related to:

1. Education institutions (365, 82.8 percent)
2. Workplaces (61, 13.8 percent)
3. Detention centres (7, 1.6 percent)
4. Religious events (3, 0.7 percent)
5. Community transmissions (3, 0.7 percent)
6. High-risk groups such as old folk's homes (2, 0.5 percent)

The Health Ministry uploads the latest details of the Covid-19 pandemic after midnight on Github as part of its open data initiative.