COVID-19 | The Health Ministry reported a total of 18 new Covid-19 fatalities yesterday (Jan 10), bringing the cumulative death toll to 31,696.

From the newly reported deaths yesterday, 11.1 percent or 2 died before they could receive treatment at a hospital.

Malaysia has the highest number of deaths per capita in the Asean and East Asian regions with 960 deaths per 1 million population, and fourth-worst in Asia after Iran, Lebanon and Jordan – all in the Middle East.

Johor recorded the highest number of new deaths at 4, making up 22.2 percent of the newly reported fatalities.

The remaining deaths were in Kedah (3), Pahang (2), Selangor (2), Terengganu (2), Kuala Lumpur (2), Kelantan (1), Malacca (1) and Perak (1).

No new deaths were reported in Negeri Sembilan, Perlis, Penang, Sabah, Sarawak, Labuan and Putrajaya.

A total of 16 out of the 18 reported deaths or 88.9 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 28 Covid-19 deaths was reported daily in the last 30 days compared to the seven-day average of 19, indicating a downward trend.

To date, 498 Covid-19 deaths have been reported this month.

As of yesterday, there were 39,742 active Covid-19 cases. This is an increase of 0.0 percent from the 39,733 active infections a week ago.

Compared to 30 days ago, the number of active cases has fallen by 34.6 percent from 60,780.

Cluster-linked infections

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

From the 2,641 new cases yesterday, a total of 73 of them could be traced to ongoing Covid-19 clusters.

From the cluster-linked cases, 42 (57.5 percent) were from high-risk groups such as old folks homes while 15 (20.5 percent) were from workplaces.

The remaining cases were traced to clusters related to community transmissions (9 - 12.3 percent) and religious events (7 - 9.6 percent).

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