KUALA LUMPUR, Oct 23 — Deaths from Covid-19 complications continued to climb as the coronavirus killed 76 more people as of midnight to push the tally up to 28,312, the Ministry of Health (MoH) reported on its CovidNow website.

Seventeen of the 76 were brought in dead (BID). As of midnight, there had been 5,718 BID cases.

The number of reported daily deaths have rapidly declined in the last few weeks as the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (NIP) reaches more Malaysians, even as the fatality rate continues to stay upward.

The CovidNow website said some 72 per cent of the country’s 33 million population have been fully inoculated, with the figure slightly higher for those who had been jabbed once.

But a fifth of Malaysians are still unvaccinated and remain vulnerable to the coronavirus. The unvaccinated account for most of the Covid-19 deaths, although the rate has markedly dropped from its peak in August since more people got inoculated.

Deaths among the partially-vaccinated have also increased since August but are showing signs of decreasing since September.

The elderly, those aged 60 and above, account for the highest share of deaths by age.

By state, Perlis tops the list of deaths per a million people in the last two weeks. Sarawak came in second, followed by Penang.

MoH officials said they expect the death rate to drop further once 90 per cent of the population are fully vaccinated. They have vowed to ramp up the immunisation drive.

The government said it aims to inoculate up to 90 per cent of the population by this year. The Covid-19 vaccines have been successful in decreasing the hospitalisation and ICU admission rates so far, lifting the strain that nearly pushed the public healthcare system to the brink of collapse as the rate of daily cases stayed at five digits for months.

Only five out of the 80,000-plus active cases required hospitalisation. The combined ICU admissions for both ventilated and unventilated patients were just 643, or 0.4 per cent of active cases.

The remaining patients were allowed to quarantine at home.