Better safe than sorry, Khairy says on move to endemic phase
The health minister says Malaysia is monitoring other countries which have declared an end to the pandemic, as well as its own numbers amid the Omicron wave.
Malaysia is taking prudent steps before it decides to declare the country’s transition from the Covid-19 pandemic to the endemic phase, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.
He said this careful approach includes ensuring that Covid-19 cases in Malaysia, especially those involving hospital admissions, do not continue to surge.
“We are monitoring other countries like Sweden and Denmark. In my opinion, they might have declared an end to the Covid-19 pandemic too early. For example, in Denmark they declared that Covid-19 was not a threat to public health but hospitalisation cases increased rapidly.
“That’s why for the health director-general (Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah) and I, we prefer to be cautious. Some say our approach is conservative and others say too conservative, but for us it is better to be safe than sorry,” he said at a press conference after launching an event at Hospital Selayang today.
If, in the next two to three weeks, the Omicron wave shows little effect on hospital admission rates with most cases showing mild symptoms, the government might be more confident about moving to the endemic phase, he added.
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