The Malaysian Insight

MORE than 500,000 Covid-19 booster shots have been administered as of November 7, Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today.

A total of 506,236 doses have been administered in the 672 vaccination centres that are still operating, he said.

Meanwhile, 75.2% of the Malaysian population, 94.8% of the adult population and 74.9% of adolescents have been fully vaccinated as of yesterday.

The ministry has received over 25 million registrations for vaccination.

Noor Hisham said many of the main indicators of the epidemic have been on the downtrend during the week that ended on November 6 compared to the week prior.

“However, the rate of Intensive Care Unit (ICU) cases increased by 2% compared to the previous epidemiogical week (ME43),” he said.

There were 516 ICU cases in the week under review compared to 505 in the previous week.

Other indicators that showed a downtrend were deaths, which fell from 522 to 380 (-27.2%), and the weekly total of new cases, which fell from 40,613 to 35,303(13.1%).

Meanwhile, the utilisation rate of ventilators remained unchanged at 214.

As for hospital capacity, there was a 1% increase in the occupancy rate of beds at wards (5,722 beds) and ICUs (555 beds). The occupancy rate at low-risk quarantine centres remained unchanged with 1,128 beds or 40% being occupied.

Noor Hisham said the number of patients receiving treatment at healthcare facilities in the mild and severe categories have been on the decline.

“However, between the 42nd and 43rd epidemiological week, there was a 3% to 17% increase in admission of Category 3 to Category 5 patients in Kuala Lumpur, Perlis, Terengganu, and Selangor,” he said.

He added that the ministry will monitor and evaluate the situation as early measures could be taken. – November 8, 2021.