Covid in Malaysia: Up, Up and Away

It’s official! Malaysia is in the midst of an Omicron wave! 

So said its Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin (right) on Sunday – and he duly informed us that the daily number of new cases is to reach 15,000 soon. 

That’s for sure lah! – he needn’t tell us because Malaysians already know wad!

Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah added his two cents and warned that daily cases are anticipated to reach 22,000 by the end of March. However, the severity of infection is much less – and consequently, hospital and intensive care unit admission rates are much lower. 

In any case, they both insisted there’s no need to be alarmed! 

According to Dr Noor Hisham (right), out of the 10,089 cases reported on Sunday, 99.24% (10,012 cases) were either mild or asymptomatic infections, which only required isolation at home. 

The general consensus is that the Omicron variant will most likely have less of an impact on health compared with previous Covid-19 waves because of increased levels of population immunity and the possible reduced intrinsic severity of Omicron infections. 

Still, you should be aware that the US CDC expect that “anyone with Omicron infection can spread the virus to others, even if they are vaccinated or don’t have symptoms”.