Covid-19 deaths (Dec 23): 29 reported fatalities, total at 31,221

COVID-19 | The Health Ministry reported a total of 29 new Covid-19 fatalities yesterday (Dec 22), bringing the cumulative death toll to 31,221.

Malaysia has the highest number of deaths per capita in the Asean and East Asian regions with 946 deaths per one million population

From the newly reported deaths yesterday, 20.7 percent before they could receive treatment at a hospital.

Pahang recorded the highest number of new deaths at six.

The remaining deaths were in Perak (5), Kedah (4), Johor (3), Selangor (3), Terengganu (3), Sabah (2), Kelantan (1), Malacca (1) and Negeri Sembilan (1).

No new deaths were reported in Perlis, Penang, Sarawak, Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya.

An average of 39 Covid-19 deaths was reported daily in the last 30 days compared to the seven-day average of 33, indicating a downward trend.

To date, 907 Covid-19 deaths have been reported this month.

A total of 1,612 Covid-19 deaths were reported in November, 2,704 in October, 9,678 in September and 7,642 in August.

As of yesterday, there were 49,395 active Covid-19 cases. This is a reduction of 13.3 percent from the 56,989 active infections a week ago.

Compared to 30 days ago, the number of active cases has fallen by 27.3 percent from 67,986.

Cluster-linked infections

From the 3,519 new cases yesterday, a total of 79 of them could be traced to ongoing Covid-19 clusters.

From the cluster-linked cases, 46 (58.2 percent) were from high-risk groups such as old folks homes while 14 (17.7 percent) were from workplaces.

The remaining cases were traced to clusters related to education institutions (9 - 11.4 percent), imported (6 - 7.6 percent) and community transmissions (4 - 5.1 percent).