Covid-19 (March 4): Record 33,209 new cases, 78 deaths

COVID-19 | The Health Ministry said 33,209 new daily Covid-19 cases were reported yesterday.

Active cases currently stood at 305,011, up 25.4 percent compared to 14 days ago.

Both new daily cases are active cases are record highs.

New cases according to states are as follows:

Selangor (8,897)
Kuala Lumpur (4,105)
Kedah (3,060)
Penang (2,592)
Johor (2,359)
Sabah (2,131)
Negeri Sembilan (1,679)
Kelantan (1,572)
Perak (1,544)
Pahang (1,535)
Sarawak (1,333)
Terengganu (938)
Melaka (741)
Perlis (270)
Labuan (266)
Putrajaya (187)

Another 78 deaths attributed to Covid-19 were reported yesterday, of which 22 were declared as 'brought in dead'.

Over the past week, an average of 73.6 people were reported to have died of Covid-19, while the average for the past 30 days was 37.1, indicating that Covid-19 deaths are on the uptrend.

Since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, a total of 33,106 deaths have been attributed to Covid-19.

Malaysia has the highest number of deaths per capita in the Asean and East Asian regions with 997 deaths per 1 million population, and fourth-worst in Asia after Iran, Lebanon and Jordan – all in the Middle East.

The highest death was reported in Sabah (15) followed by Kedah (12), Johor (11), Selangor (10), Penang (8), Perak (6), Pahang (4), Terengganu (3), Negeri Sembilan (2), Sarawak (2), Kuala Lumpur (2), Kelantan (1), Malacca (1) and Perlis (1).

There are 8,524 Covid-19 patients who are hospitalised of which 348 are in intensive care.

Although new daily cases are at record levels, the number of people who are hospitalised remains around half of the peak seen during the previous Delta variant wave in August and September last year.

According to health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah yesterday, the utilisation of dedicated Covid-19 intensive care beds is highest in Putrajaya (83 percent), followed by Kelantan (60 percent) and Kuala Lumpur (58 percent).

Dedicated Covid-19 beds in regular wards are highest in Selangor (111 percent), Perak (105 percent) and Perlis (98 percent).