PETALING JAYA: The Health Ministry has decided to release two daily figures relating to Covid-19 fatalities, namely "Reported Deaths" and "Actual Deaths" in order to increase transparency over its reporting backlog, says an official.

       Dr Mahesh Appannan, head of data at the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre, said Reported Deaths are based on the day the case was announced to the public.

       Actual Deaths are based on the actual date of death which could be earlier, Dr Mahesh said on Twitter.

       "We are categorising the reported cases according to the true date of death, so the rakyat and policymakers can get a proper picture," Dr Mahesh tweeted.

       He said some of the Covid-19 deaths which the Health Ministry reports daily occurred "weeks before", due to a backlog in investigating the true cause of fatality.

       For example, the ministry's CovidNow website shows that while Saturday's (Sept 11) figure for Reported Deaths reached a new daily record of 592, the number of Actual Deaths was much lower at 100.

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       "Back in July/August, our frontliners were really overwhelmed, especially in the Klang Valley.

       "This caused some delays in investigation, and therefore reporting. This means that some deaths which happened weeks ago are only concluding investigation, audit and reporting now," he said.

       Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin had earlier tweeted that he had asked Dr Mahesh to explain and provide context and regular insights on datasets that the ministry publishes daily.

       I’ve asked Dr @maheshappannan, Head of Data for the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC) of @KKMPutrajaya, to explain and provide context & regular insights on data sets that we publish everyday. Here is his thread on death numbers: https://t.co/yfQ6wXrdaj

       — Khairy Jamaluddin (@Khairykj) September 12, 2021

       Dr Mahesh said the ministry aimed to be transparent about the figures for Reported Deaths and Actual Deaths.

       "But it is also vital for us to have a proper picture of the trend – in the Klang Valley, deaths are clearly going down, not up (as expected with a high vaccination percentage)," Dr Mahesh added.

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       He said Malaysia is one of the few countries that makes its death line list public, referring to an organised and detailed list of each death according to actual and reported date.

       The data is available at the ministry's CovidNow website as well as the Ministry's Github online hosting page.

       Dr Mahesh said the ministry reports deaths as being "due to Covid-19" rather than "with Covid-19".

       "Death due to Covid-19" refers to a clinical investigation that has found that the cause of death was Covid-19.

       "Death with Covid-19", meanwhile, means that the patient was positive for Covid-19 at the time of death, or a short time before.

       "We focus on deaths 'due to Covid-19' because it is important to have the correct number for analysis of vaccine effectiveness, case fatality rate, etc.

       "However, this takes time, because it requires autopsy and clinical audit, rather than just checking if the patient is Covid-positive," said Dr Mahesh.