COVID-19 | The Health Ministry reported a total of 16 new Covid-19 fatalities yesterday (Jan 7), bringing the cumulative death toll to 31,644.

This is the lowest number of reported daily deaths since May 2 last year. Nevertheless, Malaysia has the highest number of deaths per capita in the Asean and East Asian regions with 958 deaths per 1 million population.

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

The new deaths were in Johor (4), Sabah (3), Kedah (2), Selangor (2), Perak (1), Perlis (1), Penang (1), Sarawak (1) and Terengganu (1).

No new deaths were reported in Kelantan, Malacca, Negeri Sembilan, Pahang, Kuala Lumpur, Labuan and Putrajaya.

A total of 15 out of the 16 reported deaths, or 93.8 percent, happened in the last seven days.

An average of 30 Covid-19 deaths was reported daily in the last 30 days compared to the seven-day average of 22, indicating a downward trend.

As of yesterday, there were 39,697 active Covid-19 cases. This is a reduction of 3.7 percent from the 41,221 active infections a week ago.

Compared to 30 days ago, the number of active cases has fallen by 34.8 percent from 60,880.

Cluster-linked infections

From the 3,381 new cases yesterday, a total of 72 of them could be traced to ongoing Covid-19 clusters.

From the cluster-linked cases, 37 (51.4 percent) were from workplaces while 23 (31.9 percent) were from community transmissions.

The remaining cases were traced to clusters related to imported (5 - 6.9 percent), education institutions (4 - 5.6 percent) and high-risk groups such as old folks homes (3 - 4.2 percent).

The Health Ministry uploads the latest details of the Covid-19 pandemic after midnight on Github as part of its open data initiative.