Malaysia battles Omicron surge, daily new infections expected to hit 15,000

Malaysia’s health minister has warned that daily Covid-19 infections may soon reach 15,000 as a result of the highly-contagious Omicron variant. According to a Bloomberg report, Malaysia’s daily case count topped 10,000 yesterday for the first time in 4 months as Omicron continues its rapid spread across the country.

Meanwhile, according to health ministry data, nearly 80% of Malaysia’s population has received 2 vaccine doses, while 53% of adults have received a booster dose. Health minister Khairy Jamaluddin is urging everyone who has not yet done so to get their booster vaccine doses.

“There are still 1 million seniors who do not have a booster dose. Please inform your loved ones to get a booster dose immediately.”

Health Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah took to Twitter to express his concern that daily infections could even reach 22,000 by March if the current rate of transmission isn’t slowed. The reproduction factor of the virus is currently at 1.2, according to officials, but Malaysia’s vaccine rollout should protect against severe illness and keep hospitalisations low.

The country has reported a number of Covid-19 clusters in settings such as educational establishments, but Khairy says officials are now moving away from focusing on case numbers, instead concentrating on severity of infection. He points out that in recent weeks, 99% of Covid patients have been in categories 1 or 2, meaning they only have mild symptoms or they are asymptomatic.

In related news, the country’s vaccine rollout has now been extended to children as young as 5 years of age. According to the Bloomberg report, as of February 1, around 15% of children between the ages of 5 and 11 had registered to be vaccinated. Meanwhile, nearly 89% of children between the ages of 12 and 17 are now fully inoculated.

SOURCE: Bloomberg