KUALA LUMPUR, June 14 — Nearly a third of Covid-19 cases reported in Malaysia this month as of June 13 had severe disease, according to Health Minister Dr Adham Baba.
Stage Four and Five patients made up 22,857 cases, or 30.8 per cent, of the 74,254 new cases recorded this month as of June 13 — an increase from 18.5 per cent in May and 10.6 per cent in April.
In May, 30,287 Stage Four and Five cases were reported out of 163,644 new cases seen during the month, while April saw 6,751 Stage Four and Five cases from 63,213 cases registered during the month.
Dr Adham told a press conference today that Covid-19 intensive care unit (ICU) bed occupancy is currently at 97 per cent, with 1,161 patients filling 1,767 beds. A total of 452 Covid-19 patients are on ventilator support.
He also said the overall number of Stage Four and Five Covid-19 patients recorded since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 until June 13 stood at 104,122 cases, or about 16 per cent of the country’s 657,508 cumulative cases recorded as of June 13.
This means there are 68,720 potential “long Covid” cases in Malaysia, based on a Ministry of Health (MOH) study that found 66 per cent in a sample of 1,004 Stage Four and Five patients had symptoms persisting up to 12 weeks or more after infection.
Dr Adham also told a press conference today that 2.5 per cent, or 562 people, of 22,857 Stage Four and Five cases reported this month as of June 13 had succumbed to Covid-19, an increase from the 2.3 per cent death rate in May (705 fatalities among 30,287 severe cases) and 2.2 per cent case fatality rate in April (146 fatalities among 6,751 Stage Four and Five cases).
As of today, MOH has officially reported 662,457 cumulative Covid-19 cases in Malaysia, including 4,949 new infections today. Sixty-four fatalities were recorded yesterday, including six brought in dead (BID), pushing the cumulative deaths from coronavirus to 3,908.
