Malaysia in small, prolonged Covid BA.5 wave

Public are urged to continue report their tests in MySejahtera to enable the ministry better gauge the situation

by AUFA MARDHIAH / pic by TMR FILE

HEALTH Minister Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar said Malaysia is currently experiencing a small but prolonged Covid-19 Omicron BA.5 wave.

“Certain countries like Singapore, their Omicron BA.5 wave is huge but in Malaysia, our wave is small but prolonged and does not rise suddenly (rises a little and remains at the new level), so this is a new low long wave that we are going through.

“Hence, we ask that the test results to be reported, in fact by law, once infected (tested positive for Covid), you must report on MySejahtera (for Home Surveillance Order) and must be quarantined at home. But there are those who are positive and still leave the house. Although we have reached to the point of managing and living with Covid-19, we hope the people can continue report their tests in MySejahtera.

“When we report, it is easy for the ministry to know the real situation, even if we focus on hospitalisations and the number of deaths, we still want to see the number of cases in the community which can only be known when people report their self-tests,” he said to the media after the launch of the National Institutes of Health (NIH) Complex at Setia Alam today.

The NIH Complex, which started operating since 2019, was officially launched today by Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah.

On the underreporting of Covid-19 cases, he said the number of reported cases is less than the actual situation due to the protocol for the test in the country that has also been relaxed.

“Previously, everyone did PCR, now most of the tests reported are RTK tests, and some do not report directly (for self-test) in MySejahtera. With this situation, we take a proxy indicator — don’t really look at the number of cases but we look at the severity of the case. When we make the decision to switch to endemic, we need to look at the severity of the case (death, hospitalisation), as long as the rates are under control then we can manage this problem well.

“If seen from the case, there will be waves from time to time. Previously, there was a day when the case reported reached three figures, now it has gone back up to 5,000, so our baseline has gone up a little due to the Omicron BA.5. However, as long as admission to the hospital, especially the intensive care unit and death rate is still at a low level, the situation is under control,” he added.