Current Covid-19 cases were infected before, during Hari Raya, says health minister

Malaysians have been urged to implement self-lockdown as the current Covid-19 cases are infections that occurred before and during the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration, says Health Minister Dr Adham Baba.

Adham said Malaysia recorded 40 religious clusters: 19 in Johor, 13 in Selangor and eight others in Melaka, Negeri Sembilan and Kelantan.

“Religious clusters emerged during the fasting month and Hari Raya Aidilfitri and proliferated due to the mobilisation of people. If we can reduce mobilisation, we can reduce virus transmission,” he told reporters at the virtual press conference on the development of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme with its coordinating minister Khairy Jamaluddin today.

He also called on the people to implement self-lockdown to break the Covid-19 chain as this method had proved successful in other countries.

Adham said a total of 38,785 Covid-19 cases were reported from May 16 to 22 with an average of 5,541 cases a day.

“A total of 333 deaths were reported during the week with an average of 48 deaths per day,” he said, adding that workplace and community clusters also recorded an increase within the period.

Adham said so far, no Covid-19 vaccine recipients had had to receive intensive treatment in hospital due to the vaccine’s side effects.

He said there had been cases of serious side effects experienced by recipients detected by the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency as well as through the MySejahtera application since the implementation of the vaccination exercise in February. However, the number is small at 0.1% of 1,000 doses.

“They have received treatment and have been discharged from hospital. They don’t need long-term hospitalisation,” he added.

Adham said a large number of those who were found to have side effects after taking their Covid-19 jabs only experienced mild side effects such as pain at the injection site, headache and fatigue which are normally experienced by vaccine recipients.

He was previously reported as saying that about 99.5% of the 25,770 recipients who experience side effects from the Covid-19 injection were found to have mild side effects while the remaining cases required treatment and observation by health specialists.