PETALING JAYA: Endemic or no, well being consultants say Malaysians should have a heightened consciousness on private well being to scale back dangers of worsened diseases brought on by Covid-19.
During the endemic stage, Covid-19 is perhaps a seasonal illness, stated Prof Dr Moy Foong Ming from Universiti Malaya’s Department of Social and Preventive Medicine.
This means the variety of circumstances might fluctuate relying on the “season”, she stated, including that compliance with public well being security tips should be in place at all times.
“We may be able to go back to pre-Covid days during the low season of Covid-19 but when the virus is in season or there is a spike in its transmission, wearing a mask on public transport or indoors could become the norm.
“Other public health strategies like regularly washing hands and maintaining physical distance in high-risk settings like hospitals could also be required,” she stated, including that working from dwelling when a person is sick would even be a norm in endemicity.
Covid-19 will grow to be endemic when the virus, regardless of its presence, wouldn’t be an excessive concern to the well being system, stated Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia well being economics, hospital and well being administration professor Dr Sharifa Ezat Wan Puteh.
She stated the virus may nonetheless trigger spikes of smaller scales, so a powerful surveillance system of infectious ailments can be required.
“At this point in time, some standard operating procedure may be relaxed and we may be able to continue as pre-Covid period.
“However, this will depend much on the upcoming variants and their pathogenicity such as causing disease or deaths,” she stated.
Besides having a extra outfitted healthcare system, Dr Sharifa additionally stated the public ought to take higher care of their private well being even throughout the endemic stage.
Senior Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein stated the authorities might announce a call inside the subsequent two to 3 weeks about the risk of the nation transitioning to Covid-19 endemicity.
He listed seven standards that wanted to be met earlier than the nation entered the endemic phase.
These included having a heightened alert system; the Test, Report, Isolate, Inform, Seek; the Find, Test, Trace, Isolate, Support system; the gradual reopening of nationwide borders and neighborhood empowerment ambassadors.
Commenting on Malaysia’s readiness to enter the endemic stage, Dr Sharifa stated it’d take the nation one other three months earlier than reaching it.
She stated the healthcare system was nonetheless rigorously combating the virus whereas new circumstances and clusters had been nonetheless rising.
“Malaysia is not yet ready as we still have a high number of new infections, although most are less severe, and hospital admissions are still at 65% based on the Covidnow website.
“It may take another three months before we achieve endemicity, provided there is no new Variant of Concern (VOC) that are more potent than Delta and Omicron,” she added.
University Putra Malaysia’s epidemiologist Dr Malina Osman concurred with the level that Malaysia is just not prepared for endemicity and routine life pre-pandemic wouldn’t be achievable simply but.
“In a situation where the number of new and active cases manageable by the healthcare system without compromising all routine services which have been carried out during pre-pandemic, routine life can be continued as usual; then we are ready to move to the endemic phase,” she stated.
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