Covid-19 deaths (Feb 5): 11 reported fatalities, total at 32,011

COVID-19 | The Health Ministry reported a total of 11 new Covid-19 fatalities yesterday (Feb 4), bringing the cumulative death toll to 32,011.

From the newly reported deaths yesterday, 36.4 percent or 4 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 969 deaths per 1 million population, and fourth-worst in Asia after Iran, Lebanon and Jordan – all in the Middle East.

The reported deaths were in Johor (3), Penang (2), Sabah (2), Kedah (1), Perak (1), Selangor (1) and Terengganu (1).

No new deaths were reported in Kelantan, Malacca, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Perlis, Sarawak, Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya.

An average of 13 Covid-19 deaths was reported daily in the last 30 days compared to the seven-day average of 8, indicating a downward trend.

Sharp rise in infections

As of yesterday, there were 63,395 active Covid-19 cases. This is an increase of 26.7 percent from the 50,030 active infections a week ago.

Compared to 30 days ago, the number of active cases has increased by 59.5 percent from 39,739.

From the 7,234 new cases yesterday, a total of 493 of them could be traced to ongoing Covid-19 clusters.

From the cluster-linked cases, 292 (59.2 percent) were from education institutions while 153 (31percent) were from workplaces.

The remaining cases were traced to clusters related to detention centres (33 - 6.7 percent), community transmissions (8 - 1.6 percent), high-risk groups such as old folks homes (5 - 1 percent) and religious events (2 - 0.4 percent).