Bonus -19 infections in Malaysia have surged to a record excessive, surpassing the numbers seen during the Delta wave final 12 months. Yesterday, Malaysia reported 27,831 new cases, the highest since August 2021, when daily infections reached 24,599. Officials say the current spike is being pushed by the highly-contagious Omicron variant, as is the case in plenty of different Asian countries.
According to a Bloomberg report, Vietnam reported a document high in new an infection numbers on Tuesday. Singapore and Indonesia are additionally battling report highs, whereas new cases in Thailand reached a 5-month high final week.
Noor Hisham Abdullah, Malaysia’s Health-Director General, has previously predicted that infections would attain 22,000 by the end of March. Yesterday, he took to Twitter, urging residents who have not yet carried out so to get a booster vaccine dose.
“We must brave this Omicron storm collectively. Many international locations in our area are seeing an upward pattern.”
The excellent news is that hospital bed occupancy in Malaysia remains at a manageable level, with health officials crediting the country’s excessive vaccination rollout. Around 80% of the population is totally vaccinated and over 50% have acquired booster doses. Bloomberg reviews that the variety of sufferers turning into severely ill of being hospitalised with Covid-19 is considerably lower than final yr.
During 2021’s Delta wave, the mixture of decrease vaccination charges coupled with a extra dangerous variant, nearly brought Malaysia’s healthcare system to its knees. By distinction, Noor says almost 99% of present patients are asymptomatic or solely have delicate symptoms.
“We have prepared for herd immunity following our high vaccine coverage and natural immunity from these recovered from Covid. Hopefully the Omicron storm will pass soon and we move to endemicity.”
Yesterday, there have been 1,269 sufferers admitted to hospital in Malaysia. Of these, solely 428 had been class three, 4 or 5 patients, that means they’d more critical symptoms and required oxygen help.
Malaysia’s Health Ministry has stated that it expects the Omicron wave to peak within the second half of March..