PETALING JAYA: The Covid-19 Omicron variant will not overwhelm the national health system because of Malaysia’s “excellent” vaccination coverage, says the health ministry.
The ministry said that although cases had been increasing this past week, with 10,089 cases reported today, there had been no surge in intensive care unit (ICU) admissions or mortality rates.
It also noted that most of the cases were in Categories 1 and 2, which refer to patients with no symptoms or only mild symptoms not requiring a hospital stay.
“Our health system will not be affected due to the excellent vaccination coverage in the country,” it said.
For comparison, it said on Feb 5, Korea reported more than 38,670 daily cases, Indonesia 32,729 cases, Thailand 10,879 cases, the Philippines 7,469 cases, Australia 22,985 cases and Singapore 10,390.
The ministry said the vaccinations had helped lower the rate of bed utilisation in health facilities, although the country was now facing the threat of the highly transmissible Omicron variant.
It said booster dose rates currently stood at 37% of the entire population, with 50% of the adult population having received a booster shot.
“The country managed to stabilise the Delta wave and the same can be done for the Omicron variant,” it added.-FMT