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. 2024 Mar 13:12:1289622.
doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2024.1289622. eCollection 2024.

Description of the COVID-19 epidemiology in Malaysia

Mohamad Nadzmi Md Nadzri #  1 , Ahmed Syahmi Syafiq Md Zamri #  1 , Sarbhan Singh #  1 , Mohd Ghazali Sumarni #  1 , Chee Herng Lai #  1 , Cia Vei Tan #  1 , Tahir Aris #  1 , Hishamshah Mohd Ibrahim #  2 , Balvinder Singh Gill #  1 , Nur'Ain Mohd Ghazali #  1 , Nuur Hafizah Md Iderus  1 , Mei Cheng Lim #  1 , Lonny Chen Rong Qi Ahmad #  1 , Mohd Kamarulariffin Kamarudin #  1 , Nur Ar Rabiah Ahmad #  1 , Kok Keng Tee #  3 , Asrul Anuar Zulkifli  1   4
Affiliations

Description of the COVID-19 epidemiology in Malaysia

Mohamad Nadzmi Md Nadzri et al. Front Public Health. .

Abstract

Introduction: Since the COVID-19 pandemic began, it has spread rapidly across the world and has resulted in recurrent outbreaks. This study aims to describe the COVID-19 epidemiology in terms of COVID-19 cases, deaths, ICU admissions, ventilator requirements, testing, incidence rate, death rate, case fatality rate (CFR) and test positivity rate for each outbreak from the beginning of the pandemic in 2020 till endemicity of COVID-19 in 2022 in Malaysia.

Methods: Data was sourced from the GitHub repository and the Ministry of Health's official COVID-19 website. The study period was from the beginning of the outbreak in Malaysia, which began during Epidemiological Week (Ep Wk) 4 in 2020, to the last Ep Wk 18 in 2022. Data were aggregated by Ep Wk and analyzed in terms of COVID-19 cases, deaths, ICU admissions, ventilator requirements, testing, incidence rate, death rate, case fatality rate (CFR) and test positivity rate by years (2020 and 2022) and for each outbreak of COVID-19.

Results: A total of 4,456,736 cases, 35,579 deaths and 58,906,954 COVID-19 tests were reported for the period from 2020 to 2022. The COVID-19 incidence rate, death rate, CFR and test positivity rate were reported at 1.085 and 0.009 per 1,000 populations, 0.80 and 7.57%, respectively, for the period from 2020 to 2022. Higher cases, deaths, testing, incidence/death rate, CFR and test positivity rates were reported in 2021 and during the Delta outbreak. This is evident by the highest number of COVID-19 cases, ICU admissions, ventilatory requirements and deaths observed during the Delta outbreak.

Conclusion: The Delta outbreak was the most severe compared to other outbreaks in Malaysia's study period. In addition, this study provides evidence that outbreaks of COVID-19, which are caused by highly virulent and transmissible variants, tend to be more severe and devastating if these outbreaks are not controlled early on. Therefore, close monitoring of key epidemiological indicators, as reported in this study, is essential in the control and management of future COVID-19 outbreaks in Malaysia.

Keywords: COVID-19; Cases; epidemiology; outbreak; variant.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Weekly COVID-19 cases by outbreaks in Malaysia, 2020 to 2022*.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Weekly COVID-19 average ICU cases by outbreaks in Malaysia, 2020 to 2022.
Figure 3
Figure 3
Weekly COVID-19 average ventilated cases by outbreaks in Malaysia, 2020 to 2022.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Weekly COVID-19 deaths by outbreaks in Malaysia, 2020 to 2022.
Figure 5
Figure 5
Male and female COVID-19 incidence rates (per 1,000 population) in Malaysia.
Figure 6
Figure 6
Male to female ratio of COVID-19 cases in Malaysia.
Figure 7
Figure 7
Male and female COVID-19 death rates (per 1,000 population) in Malaysia.
Figure 8
Figure 8
Male and female ratio of COVID-19 death Malaysia.
Figure 9
Figure 9
Number of COVID-19 cases by age group, Malaysia 2020-2022.
Figure 10
Figure 10
Age-specific COVID-19 incidence rate (per 1,000 population), Malaysia 2020-2022.
Figure 11
Figure 11
Age-specific COVID-19 death rate (per 1,000 population), Malaysia 2020-2022.
Figure 12
Figure 12
Age-specific COVID-19 death, Malaysia 2020-2022.
Figure 13
Figure 13
Weekly total COVID-19 tests and test positivity rate by outbreaks in Malaysia, 2020-2022.
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