I highly encourage the general public to continue to be vigilant and take all necessary precautions to protect not only oneself but also family, neighbours, and close friends due to increasing cases of Covid-19 in Malaysia.
This is also in line with the Ministry of Health (MoH) precaution after reported cases almost doubled in its latest report, from 6,796 cases in the 48th Epidemiological Week (ME48) to 12,757 reported cases for ME49 from December 3-9.
This is consistent with global trends with many countries including our neighbour Singapore experiencing Covid-19 spikes and other flu-like illnesses.
The latest Covid-19 surge is likely due to a number of factors, including waning population immunity,increased travel and community interactions during the year-end festive season and of course the highly infectious variant of Omicron XBB.1.16, XBB.1.5, and EG.5.5 which are predominant in Malaysia.
Even though it is a cause of concern, but it is not a reason to panic.
While these variants are known to be highly infectious, they generally do not result in severe cases. Even though in most cases the symptoms are milder than before(98%), some experiencing low grade fever, runny nose, sore throat..etc, we must continue to take all necessary precautions.
So i do advice for us all to mask up again especially in crowded places. While at this time MoH has no plans to make mask mandatory again, but always good to take self-initiative.
I also do encourage for those who are elderly and with comorbidities to consider a booster dose for better protection. Currently they can get a booster dose at government hospitals for free and the available vaccines are Sinovac.
On top of being on high alert and standby in the healthcare fascilities for any eventualities, i believe government should also ensure the stock of self test kits are sufficient and still encourage self-testing to protect one self and those around us. All cases can still be reported on MySejahtera for us to have better data coverage and better understanding of the disease burden on the ground.
In general, simple advice,
- Wear mask