Malaysia logs 15,941 new Covid-19 infections, 33 deaths

KUALA LUMPUR, March 31 — The Health Ministry today reported 15,941 new Covid-19 infections in the last 24 hours, a slight increase from 15,215 cases recorded yesterday.

This brings the cumulative total infections to 4,183,359 from the time Covid-19 arrived in the country in 2020, Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement.

The number of people who died of the virus showed a slight decrease to 33 compared to the 64 recorded on Wednesday. Of today’s new fatalities, 11 died before reaching hospitals.

As of today, a total 34,939 people have died from Covid-19 since the start of the pandemic. 

Dr Noor Hisham said the latest number of people who recovered in the last 24 hours was 21,186 cases, raising the cumulative recovered total to 3,941,829.

Dr Noor Hisham also disclosed that only 108 or 0.58 per cent of cases reported today were in Categories 3, 4 and 5 that required hospitalisation. He said the rest of the cases only reported mild symptoms.

“There are currently 275 patients being treated in intensive care units (ICU), of which 154 are suspected, probable or under investigation for Covid-19.

“Out of these 275, 168 need ventilators to help them breathe, including 77 who are confirmed as Covid-19 positive,” he said.

In the statement, Dr Noor Hisham said three states are currently using more than 50 per cent of their ICU bed capacity.

They are Putrajaya (67 per cent), Selangor (55 per cent) and Kuala Lumpur (53 per cent).

There are two states with over 50 per cent of non-ICU beds used for Covid-19 patients. They are Putrajaya (93 per cent) and Selangor (66 per cent).

As for Covid-19 quarantine centres, no states currently have more than 50 per cent of their beds utilised.

Dr Noor Hisham said the number of Covid-19 patients in need of respiratory aid has decreased to 168 people.

Overall, he said the current percentage of ventilator use stands at 19 per cent for both patients with Covid-19 and those without.

Dr Noor Hisham said one Covid-19 cluster was detected by the Health Ministry in the past 24 hours, resulting in 207 clusters that are currently active.