KUALA LUMPUR – The number of senior citizens who are infected by Covid-19 and died of the virus is on the rising trend.
According to the Director-General of Health, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, the hospital admission and death rate among the senior citizens are higher than the other age group.
The data clearly showed that unvaccinated senior citizens or those without booster dose have very high risk of dying due to Covid-19.
“Since Epidemiology Week (ME) 3/2022, the Covid-19 patients admission rate among the senior citizens had increased from 1.0 per 100,000 of the polulation to 9.0 per 100,000 population in ME10/2022.
“As it is widely known, some Covid-19 cases will deteriorate and get admitted into the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) or die.
“Therefore, the Covid-19 hospital admission rate among senior citizen is very worrying,” said Noor Hisham in a statement.
He added, from ME 39//2021 (26 September 2021 – 2 October 2022) until ME 9/2022 (27 February 2022 – 5 March 2022), the Covid-19 death rate among those aged 60 years old and above is higher than those below the age of 60.
As of 16 March, 3,356,253 (92 percent) senior citizens have received their Covid-19 complete primer dose.
Since the introduction of booster dose on 16 October last year, 2,489,718 (74.2 percent) of the senior citizens had taken their Covid-19 booster dose.
“However, the coverage of booster dose needs and can be improved further from 74.2 percent so that the senior citizens get more protection from the dangerous complications and death due to Covid-19 infection,” Dr. Noor Hisham said.
Meanwhile, Dr. Noor Hisham said that 27,004 new cases have been detected yesterday and 64 cases were in Category 5, 72 cases were in Category 4 and 63 cases were in Category 3.
373 cases required treatment at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) and 225 cases required respiratory support. -MalaysiaGazette
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