KUALA LUMPUR (May 22): It is a bad week. The Covid-19 curve is steepening rapidly with 36,606 new Covid-19 infections confirmed this week — the highest weekly number. 

It is an increase of 23% from 29,765 the previous week as the daily number of new infections breached the 6,000 mark for the first time on Wednesday (May 19). It has stayed at above 6,000 for three consecutive days with the highest of 6,806 new confirmed cases on Thursday. 

Worse, the coronavirus has killed 327 people in the week, a 72% jump from 190 fatalities last week and 111 the week before that. There were 59 deaths reported last Wednesday — the highest number in a single day. 

Almost all districts in Peninsular Malaysia now turned into Covid-19 red zones in less than two weeks since MCO 3.0 was implemented on May 12. Red zones are defined as districts with at least 41 active Covid-19 cases.

Malaysia is the country with the third highest number of Covid-19 infections (498,795 vs population of 32.77 million) in Asean, after Indonesia (1.764 million vs population of 276.36 million) and the Philippines (1.17 million vs population of 110.86 million)

The rapid rise in new Covid-19 infections daily has pushed the number of active cases — those who carry high transmission risks — past the 50,000 mark on Thursday (May 20) at 50,171 and it climbed further to 52,107 on Friday — the worst level recorded since the pandemic began last year. 

This week alone, the country’s active Covid-19 cases increased by 10,636 compared with 6,682 last week.

This is straining the healthcare system. 

83% of ICU beds occupied by Covid-19 patients

The number of Covid-19 patients in intensive care units (ICUs) went up by one third to 643 from 482 last Friday — marking the critical level of Malaysia’s healthcare capacity.

Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said 83% of the ICU beds prepared for Covid-19 patients nationwide have been taken up.

Based on data shared on his Facebook post on Friday, Covid-19 ICU occupancy has increased to close to 900 beds versus 100 beds in March 2020.

Meanwhile, the number of ventilated Covid-19 ICU patients now has climbed to 500 from just less than 100 patients who needed respiratory assistance last year.

Kuala Lumpur, Pulau Pinang, Selangor, Perak, Kedah, Sarawak, Putrajaya, Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, Johor and Melaka are states with more than 70% utilisation rate of Covid-19 ICU beds.

As at May 15, the government has set aside 850, or 61%, out of the total of 1,388 ICU beds in 78 government and teaching hospitals nationwide for Covid-19 patients.

Populous Selangor records 23,212 active cases in two weeks

According to the Ministry of Health’s two-week period data, Selangor reported 23,212 active cases — the highest among all states and federal territories.

For the period between May 8 and 21, Petaling district reported the most active cases at 8,189, followed by Hulu Langat (4,809), Klang (3,735), Gombak (2,600), Kuala Langat (1,312), Sepang (1,045), Kuala Selangor (833), Hulu Selangor (445) and Sabak Bernam (244).

Other than Selangor, Kuala Lumpur came in second at 6,687, while Johor reported 5,579 active cases.

R-naught climbs to 1.13

The basic reproduction number (R-naught or R0) for Covid-19 infections has been going up for six straight days to 1.13 from 1.05 last Saturday (May 15), an indication of the fast spread of the deadly coronavirus.

The R0/Rt data projects the average number of people that each new Covid-19 patient will infect. Rt means the effective reproduction number. An Rt of less than 1.0 means the infection is not spreading.

Looking at the May 20 data, Labuan registered the highest R0 at 1.43, followed by Perlis (1.39), Terengganu (1.31), Kedah (1.29), Melaka (1.24), Negeri Sembilan (1.23), Pahang (1.22), Putrajaya (1.20), Perak (1.20), Johor (1.19), Sabah (1.18), Selangor (1.16), Kuala Lumpur (1.11), Penang (1.07), Sarawak (1.00) and Kelantan (0.99).

Vaccination — a race against time 

Malaysia is among the countries that have started vaccination late. The first jab given under the National Covid-19 Immunization Program (PICK) was on March 2. 

Malaysia has administered 2.384 million doses of Covid-19 vaccines so far, of whom 912,683 people are fully vaccinated against Covid-19 as of May 19. 

In view of the worrying sharp rise in new infections, the government has expedited it by administering more doses each day in the past week. 

Statistics show that the number of doses administered has doubled in the past one week to 2.384 million doses on Friday from 1.182 million a week ago. 

This means that a total of 1.202 million doses have been administered for the past one week. 

Meanwhile, the number of people who are fully vaccinated increased to 912,683 from 732,322 a week ago.   

The highest number of second doses were given in Selangor (113,198), followed by Kuala Lumpur (83,377), Sarawak (82,041) and Johor (73,494).

https://www.theedgemarkets.com/article/covid19-36606-infected-327-dead-and-12-million-doses-vaccine-given-past-one-week