COVID-19: Weekly new cases up 8.5 pct - Health DG

KUALA LUMPUR: A total of 11,957 new COVID-19 cases were recorded during the 41st Epidemiological Week (ME 41/2022) from Oct 9 to Oct 15, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

He said new cases in ME 41 increased by 8.5 per cent, compared to 11,018 cases recorded in the previous week (ME 40).

"The number of COVID-19 local cases went up by 8.5 per cent to 11,916 cases compared to 10,987 cases (the week before)," he said in a statement today.

Dr Noor Hisham said the number of imported cases in ME 41 also increased by 32.3 per cent with 41 cases recorded compared to 31 cases in ME 40.

The number of deaths in ME 41 dropped 29.2 per cent from 24 cases to 17 cases, while the number of recoveries fell 13.2 per cent to 11,180 cases from 12,882 cases in ME 40.

Dr Noor Hisham said the daily average of active cases for ME 41 was 22,725, which was down three per cent from the earlier week.

He said the total number of COVID-19 patient admissions to health facilities including hospitals and Low-Risk COVID-19 Quarantine and Treatment Centres (PKRC) per 100,000 population as a whole showed no change in ME 41 compared to ME 40.

He said the number of category one and two patient admissions did not change but the number of category three, four and five patients increased by 16.7 per cent.

According to him, there was no change in the percentage of COVID-19 bed occupancy in ME 41 compared to ME 40 for non-critical beds while intensive care unit (ICU) beds saw a two per cent drop and there is still no active Low-Risk COVID-19 Quarantine and Treatment Centre (PKRC) beds.

He said from Jan 25 2020 that is ME 4 to Oct 8, 2022 (ME 41), a cumulative total of 4,865,480 new cases of COVID-19 were recorded and 4,805,200 recovery cases logged.

He said the cumulative death cases recorded for the same period were 36,415 cases with the total cumulative clusters at 7,085 clusters and eight clusters are still active.

-- BERNAMA