COVID-19 | The Health Ministry's Github data repository reported a total of 69 Covid-19 fatalities yesterday (Oct 19), bringing the cumulative death toll to 28,062.

Malaysia is the four worst-performing country in Asia in the number of Covid-19 deaths per capita after countries in the Middle East - Iran, Lebanon and Jordan.

From the newly reported deaths yesterday, 15.9 percent or 11 died before they could receive treatment at a hospital.

Sarawak recorded the highest number of new deaths at 16, making up 23.2 percent of the newly reported fatalities.

The remaining deaths were in Perak (9), Selangor (9), Johor (8), Penang (6), Kelantan (5), Malacca (4), Sabah (4), Pahang (3), Perlis (3), Negeri Sembilan (1) and Kuala Lumpur (1).

No new deaths were reported in Kedah, Terengganu, Labuan and Putrajaya.

A total of 63 out of the 69 reported deaths, or 91.3 percent, happened in the last seven days.

The remaining deaths happened more than a week ago but were only recorded yesterday due to delays in data reporting.

An average of 154 Covid-19 deaths were reported daily in the last 30 days compared to the seven-day average of 77, indicating a downward trend.

To date, 1,854 Covid-19 deaths have been reported this month.

A total of 9,680 Covid-19 deaths were reported in September, 7,642 in August, 3,858 in July and 2,380 in June.

As of yesterday, there were 85,916 active Covid-19 cases. This is a reduction of 21.2 percent from the 108,997 active infections a week ago.

Compared to 30 days ago, the number of active cases has fallen by 59.2 percent from 210,469.

Cluster-linked infections

The Health Ministry's post-midnight update also provided further insights into the new Covid-19 infections yesterday.

From the 5,745 new cases yesterday, a total of 219 of them could be traced to ongoing Covid-19 clusters.

From the cluster-linked cases, 148 (67.6 percent) were from workplaces while 32 (14.6 percent) were from community transmissions.

Another 32 (14.6 percent) were from clusters linked to education institutions.

The remaining cases were traced to clusters related to high-risk groups such as old folks homes (4 - 1.8 percent) and religious events (3 - 1.4 percent).

Previously, the Health Ministry released deaths statistics together with the number of new Covid-19 cases in the evening. This has since changed.

Deaths statistics are now released after midnight along with other more detailed data. Malaysiakini reports them in the morning.