COVID-19 | The Health Ministry reported a total of nine new Covid-19 fatalities yesterday (Jan 23), bringing the cumulative death toll to 31,882.

Along with Jan 18's tally, this is the joint lowest number of reported deaths since Apr 23, 2021.

From the newly reported deaths yesterday, one 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 966 deaths per 1 million population, and fourth-worst in Asia after Iran, Lebanon and Jordan – all in the Middle East.

Johor and Terengganu recorded the highest number of new deaths at three each, making up 33.3 percent of the newly reported fatalities, while Perak, Sabah and Selangor had one each.

No new deaths were reported in Kedah, Terengganu, Malacca, Pahang, Kuala Lumpur, Kelantan, Negeri Sembilan, Perlis, Penang, Sarawak, Labuan and Putrajaya.

To date, 694 Covid-19 deaths have been reported this month.

A total of 1,174 Covid-19 deaths were reported in December 2021, 1,612 in November 2021, 2,704 in October 2021 and 9,678 in September 2021.

As of yesterday, there were 45,120 active Covid-19 cases. This is an increase of 9.5 percent from the 41,199 active infections a week ago.

Compared to 30 days ago, the number of active cases has fallen by 3.8 percent from 46,877.