Covid-19 deaths (Dec 19): 29 reported fatalities, total at 31,073

 

COVID-19 | The Health Ministry reported a total of 29 new Covid-19 fatalities yesterday (Dec 18), bringing the cumulative death toll to 31,073.

Malaysia has the highest number of deaths per capita in the Asean and East Asian regions with 943 deaths per 1 million population. 

From the newly reported deaths yesterday, 24.1 percent or seven died before they could receive treatment at a hospital.

Perak recorded the highest number of new deaths at seven, making up 24.1 percent of the latest reported fatalities.

Selangor also has a significant number of newly reported deaths with six.

The remaining deaths were in Sabah (4), Kedah (3), Penang (3), Kuala Lumpur (2), Johor (1), Malacca (1), Pahang (1) and Sarawak (1).

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

A total of 27 out of the 29 reported deaths or 93.1 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.

An average of 39 Covid-19 deaths was reported daily in the last 30 days compared to the seven-day average of 30, indicating a downward trend.

To date, 759 such deaths have been reported this month.

There were 1,612 Covid-19 deaths reported in November, 2,704 in October, 9,678 in September and 7,642 in August.

As of yesterday, there were 54,094 active Covid-19 cases. This is a reduction of 11 percent from the 60,778 active infections a week ago.

Compared to 30 days ago, the number of active cases has fallen by 19.7 percent from 67,360.

Cluster-linked infections

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

From the 4,083 new cases yesterday, 209 of them could be traced to ongoing Covid-19 clusters.

From the cluster-linked cases, 172 (82.3 percent) were from workplaces while 21 (10 percent) were from high-risk groups such as old folks homes.

The remaining cases were traced to clusters related to community transmissions (12-5.7 percent) and education institutions (4-1.9 percent). - Mkini