KUALA LUMPUR – Masking indoors in crowded spaces is now highly encouraged by the Health Ministry, as Malaysia is seeing a rise in Covid-19 infections, Khairy Jamaluddin said.
The caretaker health minister said indoor masking is still voluntary, but is recommended as the country faces a “small wave” of new cases.
He also said the spike in infections is likely due to the Omicron variant and sub-variant XBB, while the uptake for the second Covid-19 booster is still slow.
“From time to time there will be ebbs and flows, and now it’s on the rise. The community needs to step up by taking precautions to wear masks in crowded, enclosed areas,” Khairy told a press conference today, while wearing a mask.
He said the rise and fall in the number of new infections is part of the country’s transition to Covid-19 endemicity.
Khairy said for the week of October 23 to 29, new infections had increased by 16.5% from the previous week (14,250 cases to 16,917 cases).
The use of beds in intensive care units has risen by 2%.
And the four cases of local infection from the XBB variant are all in the mild stage of Category 2, he added.
He also said the new Covid-19 vaccine from Pfizer-BioNTech, called Bivalent, will be arriving in Malaysia in November.
However, he urged those who have not received their second booster not to wait for the new vaccine but to get it as soon as possible, given the expected rise in new infections.
Only 519,839 individuals have received a second booster shot as of yesterday, Khairy added. – The Vibes, October 31, 2022
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