KUALA LUMPUR (Feb 6): As daily Covid-19 cases breach 10,000 on Sunday, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said Malaysia is now experiencing the full Omicron wave, with new cases expected to hit 15,000 soon amid the spread of the highly contagious coronavirus variant.

“Fully into Omicron wave. Cases will reach 15k soon. There are still 1 million senior citizens who have not had their booster doses. Please inform your loved ones to get their booster dose immediately,” Khairy tweeted on Sunday (Feb 6). 

Meanwhile, Health director-general warned that daily cases are expected to reach 22,000 by the end of March, based on the latest reproduction number (RO, pronounced R-nought) of Covid-19 infections in the country, according to the Health Ministry's estimation based on its Susceptible, Exposed, Infectious and Removed (SEIR) model of daily observed and forecast cases. 

“At present, (with) the RO/Rt of 1.2, we expect to reach 22,000 cases by [the] end of March 2022. Hence, the onus is on us to comply with all public health and social measures, plus increasing the vaccination and booster shot coverage to reduce the transmission and lower the Ro/Rt to less than 1,” tweeted Dr Noor Hisham. 

“We are not out of the woods yet. The onus is on us now to come together and brace the surge of cases; however, more importantly, we have to anticipate the high number of cases with less severity, less hospitalisation and less fatality,” he added. 

He also shared that Perlis led the country with the highest R0, at 1.49. This was followed Sabah (1.41), Putrajaya (1.29); Kedah (1.22); Selangor (1.19); Penang and Sarawak (1.17); Johor (1.16); Pahang (1.14); Terengganu (1.13); Kuala Lumpur (1.12); Melaka ( 1.11); Negeri Sembilan and Perak at (1.10), and Kelantan (1.08). 

Their tweets came after Malaysia reported 10,089 daily Covid-19 cases on Sunday, up from 9,117 the previous day — the highest level seen since Oct 2 last year (10,915 cases). On Friday (Feb 4), cases leapt to 7,234 after three consecutive days of daily cases coming in over 5,000.

Of Sunday's new cases, 10,012 were in Categories 1 and 2, as these patients have little to no symptoms, while 77 cases were in Categories 3, 4 and 5 (serious cases). The latest additions raised the country's cumulative confirmed coronavirus infections to 2,914,220. 

According to the ministry’s COVIDNOW portal, Malaysia has administered a total of 12,307,360 booster doses as of Saturday (Feb 5), representing 52.6% of the country’s adult population. 

Based on data updated as of 11.59pm on Feb 5, the average percentage occupancy rate of hospital beds in the country was 63.4%.

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Covid-19: New daily cases exceed 10,000 on Feb 6, says Health DG