KUALA LUMPUR – Malaysia has detected two BA.5 and one BA.2.12.1 cases, which are Omicron sub-variants.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said this was the first time these variant lineages have been detected in the country.
“Both are categorised by the World Health Organisation) as VOC-LUM (lineages under monitoring) under the Omicron variant. So far, risk factors remain the same,” he said in his tweet today.
Malaysia has just sequenced two BA.5 and one BA.2.12.1 cases. This is the first time these variant lineages have been detected. Both are categorised by @WHO as VOC-LUM (lineages under monitoring) under the Omicron variant.
— Khairy Jamaluddin ??? (@Khairykj) June 9, 2022
So far, risk factors remain the same.
Both variants are reported to be more transmissible versions of the original SARS-CoV-2 virus.
Meanwhile, Khairy in a video posted in WHO’s Twitter today said Malaysia has to ensure that the choice architecture designed by the Health Ministry for people to decide on vaccination for Covid-19 was as frictionless as possible.
“The Health Ministry knows that there is going to be hesitancy (in getting Covid-19 vaccines). Make it easy for them, make it understandable, translate it to as many dialects as possible, get public healthcare workers to go out to communities that are marginalised far in the interior to bring the vaccines to them,” he said.
He said that it is not just about communicating, but about getting people to change their behaviour, adapt their behaviour beyond Covid-19, as behavioural science is actually the first line of defence for public healthcare.
“If you can get people to behave differently and have health-seeking behaviour, going for their vaccinations, this will tremendously strengthen everything else in the healthcare system,” he said.
Khairy was asked how Malaysia used behavioural science in its Covid-19 vaccination campaign. – Bernama, June 9, 2022
