COVID-19 Epidemiology for Malaysia – Epidemiologic Week 20 (16-22 May 2021)

Overall situation

The daily reported COVID-19 case counts continue to rapidly rise across all states in Malaysia

Case counts trend, hospitalization, and transmissibility

The reported daily cases have shown a sharp increase from week 19 to week 20. A 7-day moving average of 4,140 cases on 15th May 2021 spiked to 6,320 cases on 22nd May 2021. This increase was primarily driven by cases from Selangor, KL, Sarawak, Kelantan, Johor, and Kedah. While the number of cases are relatively stable for other states such as Sabah and Perlis.

States other than Perlis and Sabah have reported 14-day incidence densities exceeding 100 cases per 100,000 population. The highest spike was an approximate three-fold increase in WP Labuan. The daily cases are rising in most states except for Sarawak and Pahang that appeared to plateau.

The overall transmissibility of COVID-19 in Malaysia increased from a Rt of 1.06 to 1.27 within week 20. Labuan recorded the highest transmissibility (Rt=4.96), followed by Perlis (Rt=3.03) and Negeri Sembilan (Rt=1.72). No states recorded a Rt below the epidemic threshold of 1.

There has been increased mobility since 13th May 2021 across Malaysia with an approximate 22-63% rise of all forms of mobility recorded until 19th May 2021. This period coincided with the celebration of Hari Raya Aidilfitri and likely explains this rise.

Prepared by Dr Mohd Ali ‘Imran Ab Rahaman, DrPH candidate from University of Malaya and revised by Prof Dr Sanjay Rampal. The report is based on the information obtained from the COVID-19 Epidemiology for Malaysia dashboard.

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