KUALA LUMPUR (Jan 28): Malaysia recorded 30,957 Covid-19 cases in the week of Jan 22 to Jan 28 — a 36.31% jump from 22,710 in the previous week — as Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin warned that cases are set to rise as the Omicron wave has begun in Malaysia.

His warning came on Wednesday, following which daily cases surged past the 5,000 mark for two consecutive days on Thursday (5,439 cases) and Friday (5,522 cases). The last time that Malaysia's daily cases came in over 5,000 was Dec 10, 2021, when 5,058 cases were recorded.

This raised Malaysia's confirmed infections to 2,855,930, of which 2,773,948 have recovered, with the latest weekly recoveries totalling 23,687 — up 16.58% from 20,318 in the previous week.

Despite his warning, Khairy also assured that the pandemic situation in the country will be under control, due to the country's high vaccination rate.

"The healthcare system has been put on standby. Serious cases are declining. Let's defeat this wave together. We need to work together with community empowerment.

“No lockdowns and heavy handed compounds. Instead, let us focus on our own behaviour. Wear [face] masks, especially in crowded areas," he urged.

Amid concerns about the new variant, which is spreading faster and carries a higher risk of re-infection than other variants of concern, the Ministry of Health has begun accelerating the distribution of Covid-19 booster doses from 150,000 per day to 200,000 per day.

The new variant, which surfaced in South Africa last November, was first detected in Malaysia in December.

Meanwhile, in the week of Jan 21 to Jan 27, Malaysia gave out 1,257,053 booster doses, down 10.03% from 1,397,245 in the previous week.

The highest weekly booster doses given out were 1,418,980, which were administered in the week of Jan 7 to Jan 13.

According to the Covid Now website, the country has administered a total of 11,531,403 booster shots to date, representing 35.3% of the country's total population since booster vaccination began in October 2021.

To date, 25,707,708 people in Malaysia have received their second dose, representing 78.7% of the country's population.

Active cases, which carry a high risk of transmission, are now nearing the 50,000 mark. On Thursday, 47,805 active cases were reported — the highest in 38 days.

Despite the increase in active cases, the number of weekly deaths (Jan 21 to Jan 27) fell 15.53% to 87 from 103 in the previous week.

Total fatalities linked to the coronavirus in Malaysia now stand at 31,940, including 6,437 brought in dead (BID) cases. BID refers to patients who were found dead on arrival at hospitals.