KUALA LUMPUR, May 21 — Malaysia lost another 50 patients to Covid-19 today, bringing the death toll for the month so far to 643 or more than all of March and April combined.

As of today, Malaysia has lost a total of 2,149 people to Covid-19.

Today, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah also reported that the number of patients in intensive care units has shot up to 643 or 56 more than yesterday.

Of these, a record 363 also required ventilators.

Of today’s deaths, 42 were from the at-risk category of those aged above 60 but in a continuation of a worrying trend, four were aged 40 and under, including a 33-year-old man who died at Hospital Kuala Lumpur.

Dr Noor Hisham previously warned that variants of concern could cause more severe symptoms in younger patients.

All but one of the deceased were Malaysians and only five did not have pre-existing health problems.

"A total of 50 death cases today involving 22 cases in Selangor, eight cases in Sarawak, five cases in Johor, four cases in Kedah, three cases in the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur, respectively — two cases each in Negeri Sembilan, Perak, and Melaka, as well as one case each in Penang and Kelantan,” Dr Noor Hisham said in a statement today.

The death rate for Covid-19 in Malaysia has accelerated in tandem with the increased usage of ICU beds, which recently surpassed 90 per cent of all capacity nationwide.