Daily caseload could reach 22,000 by end-March, DG Hisham warns

Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah today said that Malaysia could expect to reach 22,000 Covid-19 cases on a daily basis by the end of March, at the present infectivity rate of 1.20.

“The onus is on us to comply with all public health and social measures, plus increasing the vaccination and booster shot coverage to reduce the transmission and lower the Ro/Rt to less than 1,” he said in a Twitter post.

Malaysia has of late been experiencing a strong surge in daily case numbers. Although daily caseloads dropped to the 2,000 range in early January, they rose again towards the end of the month, topping 5,000 in February and spiking to over 9,000 yesterday.

Yesterday’s numbers – 9,117 – were the highest daily figure in four months. Case numbers rose again today, topping 10,000 new infections.

Noor Hisham said on Friday that the country could expect to experience a surge in Covid-19 infections although the high vaccination rate has seen fewer severe cases, with those in Category Three and above generally comprising less than 1% of daily numbers.

“Although the number of cases is expected to rise in next couple of days and weeks, due to the high transmissibility of Omicron variant, it causes a less severe form of the disease in those who had full vaccination and taken their booster shot,” he said in a Facebook post.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin meanwhile noted a similar increase in cases in neighbouring Singapore, which shot from 4,000-odd cases to over 13,000 in one day earlier this week.

“Our cases will also rise sharply in the next few weeks. This is the highly transmissible Omicron wave. So far, severity is far lower than Delta. Stay vigilant. Get boosted,” he said in a Twitter post.

As of yesterday, 12,307,360 individuals – 52.6% of the adult population – had received a Covid-19 vaccine booster jab.

Just under 98% of adults are fully vaccinated while 99.2% have received at least one dose.

In terms of teenagers, 2,791,080 individuals or 88.7% are fully vaccinated while 2,868,945 or 91.2% have received one shot.