GEORGE TOWN – Covid-19 cases, now dominated by the Omicron variant, may have plateaued, and if the R-naught figure keeps at 1.0 and below, there is a chance that the country's infection rate will begin to drop by the month’s end.
Currently, Malaysia is averaging between 25,000 to 30,000 cases against a backdrop of 99% of the adult population doubly vaccinated, 65% boosted, 91% of the adolescents fully vaccinated and 31% of children aged between 5 and 11 also dosed.
Educational clusters continue to dominate as the young were not vaccinated when schools reopened earlier this year and hence are now driving infections, said the Health Ministry’s director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.
He said that there is a chance of the cases decreasing by the month’s end, although uncertainty continues to hover because of the variants’ ability to mutate.
Noor Hisham added that Asia is usually one to two months behind Europe and the United States in terms of how the virus infects and mutates.
“We pray and hope no single variant emerges to become resistant to all vaccines. Then we are back to square one. Currently, the various types of vaccines are effective. The statistics are for all to digest,” said Noor Hisham.
He urged parents to take extra care of their children as some who are infected go on to acquire multi-system inflammatory syndrome in children (MISC).
From 174 MISC cases, there were seven deaths, Noor Hisham said.
He said that Covid-19 is now a pandemic for the unvaccinated, and so it is only logical that everyone should pursue vaccination as the best recourse to fight it.
He also confirmed Omicron as the dominant strain of Covid-19 in the country, with the emergence of the BA-1 and BA-2 sub-variants, believed to be even more infectious than the original strain.
“Generally, Omicron is less severe than the Delta strain because the majority of the people are fully vaccinated and boosted. It shows the vaccine is effective in curtailing hospitalisation and serious symptoms from emerging,” Noor Hisham said when delivering a public lecture on “Steeling Against the Omicron Storm – Is Malaysia Prepared?” at the Penang Institute think tank.
Earlier, he became the first recipient of the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Award for Leadership in Public Health 2022, which was presented by Datuk Seri Anwar Fazal, president of the Dr Wu Lien-Teh Society here.
Penang-born Wu was a legendary pneumonic plague fighter in China who invented the face mask said to be a precursor to the N95 masks used against Covid-19.
Noor Hisham was dismissive of the notion that self-testing kits are ineffective, telling a press briefing later that the national testing policy was made public to explain the step-by-step process of getting tested.
If the RTK-Ag test kits, all certified by the Medical Devices Authority, are used correctly, their results are 95% effective, he said.
He added that the quality may be questionable in cases where the kits are purchased online.
Test outcomes vary due to viral load levels, as RTK-Ag kits only pick up carriers who are highly infectious, whereas the RT-PCR test is seen as more reliable, although the results take a longer time to produce.
“But RTK-Ag is good as it picks up highly infectious people. That means they have to self-isolate themselves to avoid transmission to others if they test positive.”
RT-PCR tests also pick up any lingering evidence of infection, with cases of patients testing positive even up to 90 days after the onset of the infection even though by the seventh day, most carriers are said to have shredded the virus and become non-infectious.
He advised the public to continue to self-test, especially journalists out in the field often.
With the Omicron variant, the incubation period has changed from 21 days to just five days of close observation and close contacts. Those positive are also encouraged to conduct self-testing on days one and three of their quarantines, said Noor Hisham.
“Testing can be done every alternative day to safeguard oneself against infections.”
He urged the people to be alert as the standard operating procedures may need to change to cope with how the variants adapt, and will hopefully be phased out in time. – The Vibes, March 13, 2022
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