KUALA LUMPUR, July 16 — More people in Malaysia are now getting infected and dying from Covid-19 every day than India’s previous peak last May on a per capita basis, with no sign of the Malaysian epidemic abating.
Malaysia recorded 3.13 new Covid-19 deaths per million people on July 13, exceeding India’s May 23 peak with 3.04 new fatalities per million people, based on a rolling seven-day average, according to Our World In Data. Coronavirus-related mortality continued rising in Malaysia with 3.24 new deaths per million people on July 14.
Over the past four consecutive days, Malaysia has been recording above 100 daily Covid-19 fatalities. The country hit its worst daily death toll of 135 on July 8. An average of 97 people succumbed to Covid-19 every day in Malaysia in the past fortnight.
In terms of cumulative confirmed Covid-19 deaths per capita, however, India recorded 298.54 total fatalities per million people as of July 14, exceeding Malaysia’s 200.92.
As of yesterday, Malaysia officially recorded 6,613 Covid-19 deaths with a 0.75 per cent case fatality rate from a cumulative 880,782 infections. India has officially reported a total of 411,989 coronavirus-related fatalities to date, according to the World Health Organization’s dashboard. Malaysia’s 32.7 million population is 42 times smaller than India’s 1.38 billion people.
According to Johns Hopkins University data published on Our World In Data, Malaysia reported 299.15 daily new confirmed coronavirus infections per million people on July 14, based on a rolling seven-day average, exceeding India’s previous peak of 283.50 new cases per million people on May 8.
It is to be noted that India’s daily new Covid-19 infections have been trending downwards since May 8, while confirmed cases in Malaysia continued rising from June 26 after a brief decline from a peak on June 3.
Klang Valley (Selangor and Kuala Lumpur) yesterday reported a total of 7,619 fresh Covid-19 infections, whereas Negeri Sembilan reported 1,603 cases yesterday, comprising almost 70 per cent of the total record-high 13,215 cases nationwide.
Daily new Covid-19 cases in Asean countries are seeing an increase too, with Indonesia currently experiencing one of Asia’s worst outbreaks, although Malaysia tops Asean in terms of daily new infections on a per capita basis.
Malaysia’s 299.15 new cases per million people on July 14 exceeded Indonesia’s 151.8. In terms of absolute numbers, Indonesia reported yesterday a record high daily 56,757 new cases, compared to Malaysia’s increase of 13,215 infections.
Hospitals across Indonesia, especially in the island of Java, are reportedly pushed to the brink, amid oxygen shortages in several cities, BBC reported.
In Malaysia, anecdotal reports from medical frontliners described Klang Valley’s health care system verging on collapse, amid shortages of beds, staff, ventilators, oxygen supply, and steroid treatment for Covid-19. The Ministry of Health (MOH) has since announced increased health care resources for Klang Valley hospitals.
MOH now appears to rely primarily on vaccination to control the Covid-19 epidemic, with Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah saying yesterday that vaccination is still the only solution to manage the severity of the outbreak in order for the country to “live with the virus”.
Since October 19 last year, Malaysia’s daily new Covid-19 cases per million population, based on a seven-day rolling average, exceeded all ASEAN countries until March 16 this year.
From March 17 onwards, the Philippines surpassed Malaysia in recording higher daily new Covid-19 infections on a per capita basis. However, within just 39 days, Malaysia’s daily new Covid-19 cases per million population, based on a seven-day rolling average, exceeded the Philippines on April 26.
Since then until today, Malaysia still remains as the country which records the highest daily new Covid-19 cases per capita in the ASEAN region.
Although Malaysia has been under a Full Movement Control Order (FMCO) since June 1, including an Enhanced MCO on nearly the entire state of Selangor since July 3, the country saw an average of 9,682 daily new Covid-19 cases for the past seven days, from July 8 until July 14.
That is an increase from 6,830 average daily cases from July 1 until July 7 and an average of 5,853 cases a day from June 24 until June 30.
