Consultants: Excessive dying charges as a result of spike in lively circumstances

PETALING JAYA: The rising Covid-19 death rate in the country is due to the high number of active cases and the waning effects of the vaccine, say health experts.

Universiti Putra Malaysia medical epidemiologist Assoc Prof Dr Malina Osman said the fatalities started to rise when the number of active cases exceeded 150,000.

“The pattern is consistent and highly correlated,” she said, adding that the reason for this was also due to waning antibodies.

Dr Malina said although the Omicron variant generally caused milder symptoms compared to the Delta variant, but due to waning antibodies in an individual, its impacts are similar for those in the high-risk groups.

“Children have also manifested similar conditions. As such, we have no choice but to expedite the vaccination process and to protect those who cannot be medically vaccinated,” she said when contacted yesterday.

Covid-19 deaths had initially slowly tapered off in November last year after hitting a peak of 592 deaths on Sept 11 due to the Delta wave that swept the country in June last year.

But according to the CovidNow website, Covid-19 death rates have been gradually rising since the beginning of February. It reached a high of 79 deaths on March 3.

Those who were unvaccinated had a higher chance of dying at 2.17 per 100,000 adults compared to those who were vaccinated. For those vaccinated with two doses, the rate was 0.33 per 100,000 adults, while those fully boosted was at 0.05 per 100,000 adults based on a seven-day average as of March 3.

The number of brought-in-dead cases have also increased, reaching a high of 29 cases on March 5.

Dr Malina said the brought-in-dead cases could possibly be due to the high transmission rate in the community.

“Some of those who had been infected may not be aware of their condition. They then become sick without proper treatment, and complications arise with severe outcomes,” she said.

On whether the death rates will drop in the coming months, Dr Malina said that it would depend on the vaccination rate for booster doses and the number of active cases.

“If we can achieve a booster rate of 70% to 80%, and active cases of less than 150,000, the death rates are expected to fall,” she said.

The current active cases in the country stands at 323,785 as of yesterday.

Prof Dr Moy Foong Ming of Universiti Malaya’s Department of Social and Preventive Medicine, Faculty of Medicine said the peak of death rates in September 2021 was mostly due to low vaccination rates and the spread of the Delta variant.

“The increasing trend since February may be due to the waning effects of the vaccine among the adult population,” she said.

Dr Moy added that the emergence of Omicron, which is more infectious than Delta, had also contributed to many breakthrough infections.

“The elderly and high-risk individuals with low immunity were the majority who had serious symptoms which caused death.

“Omicron is relatively mild compared to Delta, but it will cause serious symptoms and deaths among these vulnerable groups,” she said.

She pointed out that if the chain of infection was broken and the infectivity rate reduced to below one, coupled with a higher uptake of booster doses, the total caseloads would come down.

As such, she said the death rates would also reduce proportionately.

CovidNow also showed that deaths according to age group was the highest among those above the age of 60, followed by those between the ages of 18 and 59.

The deaths of those under the age of 18 were fewer compared to the older groups.

Dr Moy said the elderly had a higher death rate as they had lower immunity and might have multimorbidity.

Thus, she said they had higher risks of mortality compared to those aged 18 to 59 even though both groups were fully vaccinated.

“It is important to protect the elderly because the manifestation of the disease on them may be different from those who are younger,” she said.

She noted that Omicron was dangerous for anyone who was not vaccinated, children and adults alike.

“With high vaccination rates and a good proportion of the adult population having booster doses, we notice that Covid-19 related hospitalisation and ICU usage were lower during the Omicron wave.

“Our healthcare system is still in good shape and able to manage non-Covid-19 cases.

“The coupling effect of high caseload and high number of deaths is also absent compared to the Delta wave.

“During this Omicron wave, more people are being infected but the majority only had mild symptoms.

Hopefully, the massive transmission will not lead to a more lethal variant that may reverse all our good work,” she said.