PETALING JAYA: Malaysia managed to keep its Covid-19 excess mortality lower compared to other countries due to good compliance with health protocols, says Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

       The Health director-general said there was good public health response between March 2020 and June last year.

       Excess mortality is defined as the difference between actual number of deaths, compared with the expected number of deaths in a population during a specific time period.

       Dr Noor Hisham said the United Kingdom, whose population is about two times larger than Malaysia, recorded Covid-19 fatalities of about 140,000 compared to Malaysia which registered 35,000 deaths due to Covid-19 to date.

       Malaysia managed to find a balancing point on its measures to curb the spread of Covid-19 which resulted in fewer fatalities caused by the virus, he added.

       Dr Noor Hisham noted that there was an increase in Malaysia’s excess mortality rate during a surge of Covid-19 cases caused by the Delta variant which hit the country around July and August last year.

       During the surge in infections caused by the Delta variant, he said Malaysia had already started to increase its vaccination coverage, especially in the Klang Valley.

       “It shows that we managed to reduce the spike of the Delta variant, and performed better than the expectation of the World Health Organisation (WHO),” he said yesterday during a media briefing on Covid-19 excess mortality in Malaysia.

       Other panel members who attended the briefing included Institute for Clinical Research (ICR) director Datuk Dr P. Kalaiarasu and Institute for Public Health’s medical officer Dr Shubash Shander Ganapathy.

       Dr Shubash noted that Malaysia’s trend in low excess mortality was about the same with the projection made by the WHO.

       “It is important to determine the true impact of the pandemic.

       “Excess mortality would look at all deaths, both deaths due to Covid-19 and also deaths not due to Covid-19.

       “This will also evaluate how we managed diseases other than Covid-19 during the pandemic, the extent health services were disrupted during the pandemic and also the impact of the pandemic towards the health of the people,” Dr Shubash explained.