PETALING JAYA: Although the every day Covid-19 case figures lately surged to new data as a result of Omicron wave, the Health Ministry says hospitalisation charges are nonetheless at a way more manageable stage in comparison with final yr.
Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin stated the variety of Covid-19 deaths and admissions to intensive care models (ICU) was 80% to 90% lower than the height of the Delta wave in August 2021.
“This is an example of the decoupling effect. Previously, during the Delta wave, when the number of cases went up, the death rates and ICU admissions would follow suit.
“But today, despite the number of cases being higher than during the Delta wave, the number of deaths and ICU admissions is a lot lower than last year’s figures.
“This shows the effectiveness of vaccines in protecting individuals from more severe infections.
“We can see this especially among the elderly who have received boosters and teenagers who have been jabbed twice,” stated Khairy at a press convention on the ministry in Putrajaya.
The minister stated that when analysing Covid-19 new instances, it must also be learn with the variety of discharged sufferers.
“For example, on Feb 23, the number of new cases was 31,080 while the number of those discharged was 20,399.
“This resulted in the reduction of our infectivity rate (Rt), which is currently at 1.13. The rate of hospitalisations, ventilator and ICU usage at our hospitals is also at a manageable level right now.
“The length of stay at hospitals is also shorter compared to the Delta wave.”He added that of the 31,080 new instances on Feb 23, there have been 194 instances within the extreme classes of three, 4 and 5.
Of that, almost 79% are people who should not vaccinated or haven’t acquired booster doses.
Asked concerning the Omicron BA.2 subvariant, Khairy stated the World Health Organisation didn’t deem it as a separate variant of concern.
“I have asked the Institute for Medical Research to provide further details on both the transmissibility of BA.2 as well as its virulence,” he stated.
In the Feb 23 figures, Malaysia registered a document 31,199 new Covid-19 instances, in accordance with the ministry’s CovidNow portal.
Of the quantity, 31,080 had been native transmissions whereas 119 had been imported instances.
This brings the full variety of Covid-19 infections within the nation to three,305,157 instances for the reason that pandemic started.
