Health chief: 47.5pct of Sarawak's 2022 Covid-19 deaths not boosted

 

Sarawak health department director Dr Ooi Choo Huck said yesterday that nearly half of Sarawak’s 61 Covid-19 deaths in 2022 occurred in patients who had yet to receive the booster vaccination.

According to a report by The Malaysian Insight, Ooi said that from Jan 1 until March 27, 29 of those who passed away had not had their booster shot when they died from Covid-19 complications.

He did however say that all 29 had completed their two-dose primary vaccination but died before getting a booster jab.

Another 20 people (32.8 percent) had taken the booster dose more than 14 days before their death but succumbed to complications that developed after contracting the infection.

A further 11 of the fatalities had not been inoculated, including two children who are not eligible to receive the vaccine, while there was also a death in which a foreign victim had received only one dose of the Chinese vaccine Sinovac.

Emphasising that these were not the only factors, Ooi said 85 percent of the deaths were victims who were over 60 years old and had a history of comorbidities.

Some 298,341 people have been infected in the state with 1,690 deaths recorded.

Nationwide, the death toll has just surpassed 35,000 with 35,013 deaths recorded thus far. 

There have been 2,235 reported Covid-19 deaths in March compared to 770 deaths in February and 491 deaths in January.

Malaysia has the highest number of deaths per capita in the Asean and East Asian regions with 1,058 deaths per 1 million population, and the fourth-worst in Asia after Iran, Lebanon and Jordan – all in the Middle East. - Mkini