KUALA LUMPUR: Covid-19 deaths are on the decline in all states despite high number of fresh infections amid increasing vaccination rates.
According to the Health Ministry's CovidNow portal, the seven-day average of actual deaths in Malaysia is down to 109 on Sept 18, from 315 on Aug 7, the highest reported figure.
It has been on a steady decline since Sept 1 where the figure stood at 240.
An average of 109 deaths is the lowest figure recorded since July 7 when the country had a seven-day average of 111.
This is however, the third consecutive day where over 300 new deaths were reported to the Health Ministry.
Covid-19 deaths totalled 324 on Sept 18, a slight decrease from 346 on Sept 16 and 388 on Sept 17.
With the fresh fatalities on Saturday, Malaysia's Covid-19 death toll currently stands at 23,067 (including 4,397 brought-in-dead or BID cases).
Of the 324 cases, 153 were reported in the Klang Valley (including 146 in Selangor and seven in Kuala Lumpur).
Johor logged 54 new deaths on Saturday, followed by Penang (25), Kedah (24), Perak (15), Sabah (13), Kelantan (12), Sarawak (11), Melaka (seven), Negri Sembilan (five) and Pahang (five).
No Covid-19 casualties were reported in Perlis, Terengganu, Labuan and Putrajaya.
BID cases on Sept 18 increased to 70 from from 64 the day before.
Meanwhile, as of Sept 18, 56.02 per cent of the population were fully immunised against Covid-19, compared with 26.41 per cent on Aug 7.
Despite the relatively large number of new cases, there has been an improvement where the daily cases (seven-day average) dipped to 17,482 on Sept 18 from 21,153 on Sept 1.
The country logged 15,549 new positive cases on Sept 18, a decline from 19,495 cases on Sept 15, 18,815 on Sept 16 and 17,577 on Sept 17.
This brings the total number of Covid-19 cases to 2,082,876, including 219,359 active cases.
Of this figure, 83.4 per cent (182,857) are undergoing home quarantine, 10.9 per cent (23,998) are at Covid-19 Quarantine and Low-Risk Treatment Centres (PKRC) nationwide, 5.2 per cent (11,339 patients) are currently hospitalised, 0.2 per cent (475) in ICU (unventilated) and 0.3 per cent (690) in ICU (ventilated).
While the country's overall active hospitalisation rate (seven-day average) has been on a downward trend from 15,735 on Aug 17 to 12,227 on Sept 18, three states - Kelantan, Pahang, Sarawak - showed a worrying upward trend.
Kelantan's hospitalisation rate (seven-day average) has been surging since July 13 (291 patients hospitalised on average) to 919 on Sept 18.
Pahang reported a seven-day average of 496 patients in hospitals on Sept 6, which increased to 527 on Sept 18.
In Sarawak, hospitalisation rates (seven-day average) stood at 442 on Aug 20 and surged to 924 on Sept 18.
As of Sept 18, 36.69 per cent of the population in Kelantan, 42.31 per cent in Pahang, and 64.68 per cent in Sarawak have been fully vaccinated against the virus, which are among the lowest figures in the country.
The country's Intensive Care Unit (ICU) utilisation stood at 75.1 per cent with a total 1,165 active Covid-19 patients, a dip since Aug 20, when 1,520 patients were in ICU.
This includes 307 active ICU patients in the Klang Valley (72.9 per cent utilisation - 207 in Selangor, 95 in Kuala Lumpur, five in Putrajaya), 101 in Johor (82.2 per cent), 84 in Kedah (89.1 per cent), 72 in Kelantan (67 per cent), 68 in Melaka (77.3per cent), 22 in Negri Sembilan (48.2per cent), 51 in Pahang (96.7 per cent), 71 in Penang (96.6 per cent), 95 in Perak (88.1 per cent), six in Perlis (36.8 per cent), 148 in Sabah (68.2 per cent), 104 in Sarawak (76.2 per cent), 35 in Terengganu (65.8 per cent) and one in Labuan (21.7 per cent).
Kelantan again recorded an increase in ICU patients from 28 (seven-day average) on July 14 to 96 on Sept 18.
In Penang, the figure (seven-day average) rose from 29 on July 8 to 72 on Sept 18 and in Sabah, it went from 126 on Sept 12 to 139 on Sept 18.
An upward trend was also observed in Sarawak (29 active patients on average on Aug 4 to 99 on Sept 18) and Terengganu (26 on Sept 12 to 32 on Sept 18).
As of Sept 18, patients on ventilators stood at 50.6 per cent (including utilisation for non-Covid cases to reflect the overall state of the public healthcare system).
Covid-19 patients requiring ventilator support (seven-day average) was at its peak on Aug 8 with 921 patients after which the number dropped to 827 on Sept 1 and 693 on Sept 18.
However, patients requiring ventilator are on the rise based on the seven-day average in Kelantan (36 on Sept 6 to 52 on Sept 18), Pahang (23 on Aug 31 to 37 on Sept 18), Perak (62 on Aug 26 to 69 on Sept 18) Sarawak (10 on Aug 9 to 31 on Sept 18) and Terengganu (17 on Aug 25 to 24 on Sept 18).