KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 1 — Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin today reassured the public of his ministry’s capabilities in handling the incoming wave of Covid-19 cases brought about by the Omicron variant.
In a series of tweets, Khairy said that he had forewarned the increasing number of cases more than a month ago, and has had his ministry completely ready to deal with the surge of cases.
More than a month ago, I said that we expect Omicron to become dominant here as it has elsewhere, and that when it did, cases would rise. That's why we sped up our booster program.
— Khairy Jamaluddin 🇲🇾🌺 (@Khairykj) February 1, 2022
We are now seeing the predicted quick rise in cases. However, there is no need to panic. 1/4 pic.twitter.com/pOJtbMQUBc
“There is strong indication of a decoupling between severe outcomes and cases. Our vaccination programmes — adults, adolescents, and soon children — are working well.
“Hospital capacity utilisation remains under control, and we are prepared to deal with a surge,” he said.
Khairy said that the ministry has learnt how to better manage a Covid-19 wave from the previous one that hit the country between June and September of last year, allowing for shorter quarantine periods, self regulation and keeping the disruption to a minimum.
“With more than 50 per cent of adults (and almost 70 per cent of the elderly) having gotten a booster shot, we have every hope that we can weather the Omicron wave with carefully calibrated and proportionate measures.
“Follow SOPs. #TRIIS. Get boosted. Get your kids vaccinated. We can do this,” he said.
Yesterday, Malaysia’s new daily Covid-19 cases stayed below the 5,000 mark after recording 4,774 infections in the past 24-hour.
This also marked another dip from 4,915 the day before, which ended the country’s three days streak of recording above 5,000 cases in daily Covid-19.
It also brought the total number of Covid-19 cases in the country, since the start of the pandemic, to 2,870,758.
