KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 24): Malaysia's Covid-19-linked fatalities fell 19% to 2,326 in the week of Sept 17 to 23, compared with the record high of 2,869 in the previous week.
This came as daily reported deaths declined to a two-month low of 116 on Thursday (Sept 23).
Of the 2,326 weekly deaths, 575 or 24.72% were brought-in-dead (BID) cases, according to Ministry of Health (MoH) data.
Since the coronavirus struck the country last year, the total reported Covid-19-related deaths were at 24,681, while the cumulative number of BID cases stood at 4,838.
Only 842 deaths occurred this week
The MoH also noted "actual deaths" during the Sept 17-23 period totalled 842 (up 12.87% from the previous week's 746 deaths), while the rest were backlog cases from previous data.
The MoH is now using different methods to improve its Covid-19 death reporting due to discrepancies over the reporting of backlog cases. It is now releasing more detailed data on its CovidNow website and a cloud-based repository hosting service provider dubbed MoH Github.
The ministry has decided to be more transparent on the reported deaths and actual deaths for overall and BID cases.
It said the backlog deaths data was due to the human resource system when in July and August frontliners, especially in the Klang Valley, were overwhelmed and this caused some delays in investigations.
Active cases dropped 12.7% to 198,281 in Sept 17-23 week
Active cases which carry high transmission risks dropped by 12.7% to 198,281 on Thursday, from 227,120 a week earlier.
Of these, 165,421 people were undergoing home quarantine, 21,350 patients were being treated in Covid-19 Quarantine and Low-Risk Treatment Centres, 10,396 individuals were hospitalised and another 502 were placed in intensive care units (ventilated and unventilated).
A total of 133,438 Covid-19 recoveries were reported from Sept 18 until Sept 23, the fourth straight week it outpaced infections. In comparison, 106,928 Covid-19 cases were identified during the week.
The country's cumulative recoveries stood at 1.95 million, versus 2.17 total infections.
Weekly Covid-19 vaccine doses increased to 1.93 million from previous week
Malaysia administered a total of 1.93 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines from Sept 16 until Sept 23, up from 1.7 million delivered in the previous week.
To date, 22.48 million people across Malaysia or 68.8% of the nation's population had received their first dose, including 19.18 million people or 58.7% who were fully inoculated.
The Klang Valley, comprising Selangor, Kuala Lumpur and Putrajaya, had the highest vaccination rate in terms of total population fully vaccinated at 79.3%, followed by Negeri Sembilan (69%), Labuan (67.5%) and Sarawak (64.8%).