KUALA LUMPUR, July 9 — Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, and Negeri Sembilan witnessed an increase in Covid-19 deaths over the past month, amid hospital intensive care units there running at over-capacity.
According to Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah Wednesday, Selangor hit a 129 per cent average seven-day utilisation rate at its hospital ICUs, compared to 102 per cent in Kuala Lumpur and 166 per cent in Negeri Sembilan.
Selangor reported 39 Covid-19 deaths on July 7 based on a seven-day rolling average, compared to 11 deaths in Kuala Lumpur and 12 deaths in Negeri Sembilan on the same day.
From June 9 until July 7, Malaysia recorded a total of 2,232 deaths caused by the coronavirus. The rolling seven-day average of Covid-19 fatalities on July 7 was 85.4 deaths.
The total deaths in that period of time comprised 38.69 per cent of the cumulative 5,768 Covid-19 deaths that occurred in Malaysia since last year until July 7.
From June 9 until July 7, Selangor (860 deaths), Kuala Lumpur (268 deaths) and Negeri Sembilan (269 deaths) recorded a total of 1,397 Covid-19 deaths, comprising 62.59 per cent of the nation’s total 2,232 fatalities in that period.
On July 7, CodeBlue reported that multiple hospitals across Selangor and Kuala Lumpur are on the brink of collapse, struggling to cope with an increased admission of critically ill Covid-19 patients requiring oxygen in the past two weeks.
Most parts of Selangor and several localities in Kuala Lumpur, were put under Enhanced Movement Control Order (EMCO) from July 3, whereas the entire Seremban, the capital city of Negeri Sembilan, will undergo EMCO from July 9.
Starting from June 29, Labuan’s death cases based on a seven-day rolling average started to see a decline, whereas states like Pahang and Perlis saw a very tiny increase in their Covid-19 deaths.
Johor, Kedah, Kelantan, Sabah, Sarawak, Terengganu and Penang generally saw a decline in Covid-19 fatalities over the past month, although their mortality rate fluctuated over the past week.
National Covid-19 deaths based on a seven-day rolling average saw a constant increase from July 2, hitting 85 fatalities on July 7.
Labuan, Negeri Sembilan, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, and Melaka recorded the highest Covid-19 deaths per one million population from June 9 until July 6, exceeding the national average at 65.47 deaths per million people.
Besides Negeri Sembilan, Kuala Lumpur, and Selangor running at over-capacity in their ICUs, the health care systems in Labuan and Melaka are also over-run with critical Covid-19 cases at 127 per cent and 128 per cent average ICU utilisation rates based on a seven-day average last Wednesday.
Labuan reported the country’s top coronavirus mortality rate at 833.33 deaths per million population, nearly 13 times higher than the national death rate.
Negeri Sembilan reported the second highest death rate at 222.73 fatalities per million people in the same period of time, almost four times lower than Labuan, followed by Kuala Lumpur (145.44), Selangor (123.75) and Melaka (82.19).
Over the past four weeks, about 83 people died in Labuan, which accommodates some 100,000 people in the small island.
Six states and federal territories — including Sabah, Terengganu, Penang, Perlis, Perak, and Putrajaya — reported fewer than 20 Covid-19 fatalities per one million people.
As of July 6, Labuan has the second highest vaccination rate in Malaysia with 27.9 per cent of its adult population fully inoculated, behind Putrajaya’s 43.6 per cent. Selangor reported the lowest vaccination rate at 8.2 per cent of adults fully immunised.
A total of 14 per cent of adults in Negeri Sembilan and 20 per cent from Kuala Lumpur have completed Covid-19 vaccination as of July 6, while 27.3 and 91.3 per cent of the adult population have received at least their first dose respectively. More than half of Labuan’s adult population at 55.1 per cent have received at least one dose.
Despite high vaccine coverage with at least the first jab, Labuan and Kuala Lumpur still recorded among the country’s top three highest mortality rates — which could be due to poorer protection from only one dose against the Delta variant or because it takes time for protection to kick in after two doses.
