KUALA LUMPUR (Sept 8): The rate of occupancy for government hospital beds in intensive care units (ICUs) had increased to 84% as of Sept 7, compared with 68% previously.
Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah tweeted that out of 1,570 ICU beds throughout the country, 84% are currently occupied.
He said Kedah is already operating above 100% of its ICU capacity, with a 122% occupancy rate for its 104 ICU beds.
The states or federal territories with more than 90% utilisation rate are Perak (96% of 112 beds), Kelantan (95% of 85 beds), Selangor (94% of 317 beds), Penang (93% of 73 beds), Johor (91% of 110 beds) and Perlis (91% of 11 beds).
They are followed by Sabah (88% of 143 beds), Pahang (79% of 66 beds), Sarawak (78% of 120 beds), Melaka (78% of 90 beds), Terengganu (72% of 39 beds), Kuala Lumpur (68% of 174 beds), Putrajaya (60% of 20 beds) and Negeri Sembilan (31% of 88 beds).
Six states have vaccination rates of below 60%, namely Johor (55.7% of adult population fully inoculated), Pahang (54.9%), Perak (51.7%), Kedah (50.2%), Kelantan (49.9%), and Sabah (46.1%).
Interestingly, Labuan where 95.6% of the population has been fully inoculated — the second highest vaccination rate after the Klang Valley (97.8%) — is the only state or federal territory that has no patients in the ICU.
To date, a total of 20.81 million people, or 88.9% of the nation's adult population, have at least received their first dose of vaccination, including 16.3 million people or 69.6% who have received both doses.
As for non-ICU Covid-19 beds, the nationwide occupancy rate as of yesterday was at 77% (out of 17,855 beds), up from 72% in the previous day.
The Health Ministry started to release the numbers of daily Covid-19 ICU and non-ICU beds last Thursday (Sept 2).
A total of 19,733 new Covid-19 infections were reported in Malaysia today, the third consecutive day with less than 20,000 new cases.
In all, the country has registered 1.9 million confirmed Covid-19 cases.