Malaysia is on the edge of entering the endemic phase, and the situation is improving

According to Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, the improving Covid-19 situation in the country in recent weeks demonstrates that Malaysia and its people are ready to enter the endemic phase.

This, he noted, can be observed in the decreasing trend in average daily cases, clusters, and hospital utilisation capacity, despite the country's high immunisation rate.

Since the 34th epidemiological week, important measures such as the number of daily cases, active cases, fatalities, cases treated in the intensive care unit (ICU), and the R-Naught (Rt) rate have all shown a constant drop, according to him (Aug 22-28).

According to him, the number of Covid-19 instances decreased by 23.6 percent from 83,368 cases in the 39th epidemiological week to 62,722 cases in the 40th epidemiology week.

"A total of 133,806 active cases were reported in the 40th epidemiology week, a decrease of 21% from the 39th epidemiology week," he stated in a statement on Covid-19's progress on Monday (Oct 11).

Apart from the daily drop of 0.2 percent in the country's Rt rate, he said 700 deaths were documented in the 40th week, with an average of 100 deaths per day, a drop of 50.2 percent from the 39th epidemiological week.

According to him, 778 ICU cases were documented in the 40th epidemiological week, down 9% from the 39th week, and 331 patients requiring breathing assistance were recorded in the 40th week, down 11.2 percent from the 39th week.

According to Dr. Noor Hisham, 79 clusters were recorded in the 40th epidemiological week, down 21% from the 39th week.

In terms of hospital bed capacity, he said the Health Ministry had authorised 16,199 beds for ordinary wards and 1,514 beds for ICU wards, with 8,164 beds being used in the 40th week, down 5% from the previous week.

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