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Malaysia could see 30,000 daily Covid-19 cases by March if Omicron wave not suppressed: Health Minister

People wait to receive a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine during the first mega Covid-19 vaccination at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre in Kuala Lumpur on May 31, 2021.

People wait to receive a dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 coronavirus vaccine during the first mega Covid-19 vaccination at the Malaysia International Trade and Exhibition Centre in Kuala Lumpur on May 31, 2021.

An epidemiological prediction model has projected that Malaysia could record 30,000 Covid-19 cases daily by the end of March should the rate of infection (R0) rise to 1.6, said the country’s Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

This would eclipse Malaysia’s highest single-day total of 24,599 recorded in August last year.

Mr Khairy said on Thursday (Jan 6) that the United Kingdom had seen a R0 as high as 3.0 in its ongoing Omicron wave and stressed that Malaysia had to take action to prevent this from happening in the country.

“The simulation showed that the prediction of the health ministry should we not take the steps to slow down the spread — such as the temporary travel suspension — we will see cases shoot up, starting in January to more than 15,000 cases a day.

Mr Khairy added that even though the Omicron variant was not as deadly as the Delta variant, such high numbers would inevitably result in enough severe cases to overwhelm Malaysia’s health system that was still recovering.

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