KUCHING, Sept 12: The daily COVID-19 will now feature two daily figures related to its fatalities, “Reported Deaths” and “Actual Deaths”, as the Health Ministry (MOH) aims to be transparent when reporting on the backlog.
Dr Mahesh Appannan, head of data at the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre, said most of Reported Deaths reported by MOH are based on the day the case was announced to the public
The MOH reports deaths ‘due to’ Covid, rather than deaths ‘with’ Covid.
He further explained stating the difference that due to Covid meant clinical investigation has found that cause of death (CoD) was Covid, while Death With Covid is the patient was positive Covid-19 at time of death (or a short period before).
“We focus on deaths ‘due to’ Covid because it is important to have the correct number for analysis of vaccine effectiveness, case fatality rate, etc,” he said.
However, he added that this takes time, saying that it requires autopsy and clinical audit (rather than just checking if the patient is postive Covid).
“Back in July/August, our frontliners were really overwhelmed, especially in the Klang Valley. This caused some delays in investigation, and therefore reporting,” says Dr Mahesh.
He explained that some deaths which happened weeks ago are only concluding investigation, audit and reporting now.
“So, how do we report backlogged data to the Malaysian public? We want to be transparent about the death numbers.
“But, it is also vital for us to have a proper picture of the trend – in Klang Valley, deaths are clearly going down, not up (as expected with high vax %),” he said.
