On March 11, 2023, Malaysia recorded 223 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, reflecting an increase from more than 160 cases on March 5, 2023. Malaysia is still expecting a rise due to the highly contagious variant of Omicron.

Malaysia is currently one out of more than 200 countries and territories battling with the novel coronavirus. For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

On March 11, 2023, Malaysia had approximately five million confirmed cases of COVID-19. Over the past week, Malaysia has seen a decrease in the number of new cases each day, but still expects an increase due to the highly-contagious Omicron variant.

Malaysia is currently one out of more than 200 countries and territories battling with the novel coronavirus. For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

As of November 4, 2023, Malaysia recorded over 5.1 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 and around 37.1 thousand deaths from the virus. Currently, Malaysia has successfully vaccinated over 80 percent of its population and is experiencing a decrease in cases, although the country still expecting a rise due to the highly contagious variant of Omicron.

Malaysia is currently one out of more than 200 countries and territories battling with the novel coronavirus. For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

As of July 13, 2022, 67 percent of Malaysian respondents stated that they had been avoiding public places during the COVID-19 outbreak, up from 40 percent on Feb 24, 2020. Malaysia is currently experiencing a decrease in the number of confirmed daily cases of COVID-19 infections, although the country still expecting a rise due to the highly contagious variant of Omicron.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

As of July 13, 2022, 84 percent of Malaysian respondents stated that they were wearing face masks when in public places during the COVID-19 outbreak, up from 55 percent on Feb 24, 2020. Malaysia has vaccinated more than 80 percent of its adult population. However, due to the highly infectious type of Omicron, the country is still expecting an increase in the number of confirmed daily cases of COVID-19 infections.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

As of July 13, 2022, 76 percent of Malaysian respondents stated that they feared contracting the novel coronavirus and the infection caused by it, COVID-19. Malaysia has seen a decrease in the number of new cases each day, but still expects an increase due to the highly-contagious Omicron variant.

For further information about the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, please visit our dedicated Facts and Figures page.

Percentage improvement of the proposed models with other forecasting models (The COVID-19 cases of daily new positive cases).

As at April 2020, the number of medium viewers (those who watched television between eight to 16 hours a day) increased to about 2.6 million, compared to 1.7 million viewers on January 25, on which the first COVID-19 cases were confirmed. The average number of daily TV viewers per minute after the enactment of the Movement Control Order (MCO) in response to the COVID-19 outbreak in Malaysia has been higher than before the MCO movement was implemented.

As of May 2, 2023, the outbreak of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) had been confirmed in almost every country in the world. The virus had infected over 687 million people worldwide, and the number of deaths had reached almost 6.87 million. The most severely affected countries include the U.S., India, and Brazil.

COVID-19: background information COVID-19 is a novel coronavirus that had not previously been identified in humans. The first case was detected in the Hubei province of China at the end of December 2019. The virus is highly transmissible and coughing and sneezing are the most common forms of transmission, which is similar to the outbreak of the SARS coronavirus that began in 2002 and was thought to have spread via cough and sneeze droplets expelled into the air by infected persons.

Naming the coronavirus disease Coronaviruses are a group of viruses that can be transmitted between animals and people, causing illnesses that may range from the common cold to more severe respiratory syndromes. In February 2020, the International Committee on Taxonomy of Viruses and the World Health Organization announced official names for both the virus and the disease it causes: SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, respectively. The name of the disease is derived from the words corona, virus, and disease, while the number 19 represents the year that it emerged.

As of April 13, 2024, India had the highest number of confirmed deaths due to the outbreak of the novel coronavirus in the Asia-Pacific region, with over 533 thousand deaths. Comparatively, Indonesia, which had the second highest number of coronavirus deaths in the Asia-Pacific region, recorded approximately 162 thousand COVID-19 related deaths as of April 13, 2024. Contrastingly, Bhutan had reported 21 deaths due to COVID-19 as of April 13, 2024.

In 2020, there were around 4.5 thousand case of opiate abuse in Malaysia. The number of opiate cases discovered dropped in 2020 due to the movement restrictions imposed to control the COVID-19 infection.

In 2022, there were 148 government hospitals and 207 private licensed hospitals in Malaysia. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the Malaysian hospitals were prepared by the government to accommodate infected patients by increasing bed numbers. Although the country has now entered the post-COVID time, the pandemic had an impact on the healthcare system.

COVID-19 hospitals

During the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 and 2021, many of public and private hospitals provide screenings for coronavirus. However, these are paid services. Only the high-risk groups such as elderly population who live in a nursing home and healthcare workers were provided free COVID-19 tests by the government. About 59 hospitals that are owned by the Ministry of Health handled patients under investigation (PU) and suspected positive COVID-19 cases. In July 2020, these hospitals prepared over 400 beds in the in the intensive care unit (ICU) and an additional thousand-odd ventilators for COVID-19 patients exclusively. With the availability of vaccination against the disease, the number of patients significantly decreased. As of March 2022, around 80 percent of Malaysian population have been vaccinated.

Digitalization of patient records

In 2019, the Ministry of Health announced a plan to use electronic medical record (EMR) systems across all hospitals and clinics nationwide. The digitalization of patient records would then provide ease the healthcare processes. Just like in most countries, the pandemic has also accelerated the digital evolution demand in Malaysia. To achieve this goal, the government has also improved connectivity and bandwidth infrastructure across the country. In 2019, Malaysia had a digital readiness index of 14.31 out of 25, putting it in the Accelerate Stage. In comparison, neighboring Singapore has made progress in its e-government strategy with a head start in 2011.