No room for selfishness if Malaysia is to beat Covid-19, says health minister

KUALA LUMPUR, May 6 — Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin reminded Malaysians that the country's shift to Covid-19 endemicity depends on everyone being truthful and cooperative with the authorities on their health status.

He acknowledged that having to always be on guard takes a toll on everyone, but stressed that it was a necessity in a pandemic, so that life can be as “near normal” as possible.

“I am aware there is pandemic fatigue, but by not reporting, you are contributing to a blind spot for virus detection in the community.

“And while the Health Ministry continues with sentinel testing at our clinics and looks to expand other methods like wastewater analysis, data from self-tests are extremely useful,” he wrote in a commentary published in The Star newspaper today.

Khairy said the ministry is also aware that people are reluctant to report a positive result because they do not want a seven-day HSO (Home Surveillance Order) notice.

“That’s why you can now test-to-release if negative on day four,” he said.

Khairy also pointed out that surveillance for new variants is extremely necessary despite having financial setback due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“After having spent so much money on the pandemic, getting continued financial allocation to conduct expensive whole genomic sequencing (WGS) to detect which variant or sub-lineage is spreading in Malaysia will be tough, but extremely necessary,” he said.

“Without a decent number of WGS, we will not know quickly enough the trajectory of the disease and how to respond to it. We have been lucky that Omicron is not as severe as Delta in Malaysia,” he added.

Khairy also said the virus mutation is unavoidable as large swathes of the world population still unvaccinated and the virus still circulating globally.

“The doomsday scenario will, of course, be a deltacron variant, a highly transmissible and virulent, and we need to stay ahead of this,” he said.

Khairy also told the public to not be alarmed if the Covid-19 cases increase again during the Hari Raya Adilfitri season.

“This is part of us living with waves of cases that I mentioned above until eventually we reach some endemic point in the future.

“As long as the severity of these cases is low and our hospital capacity is protected (not just for Covid-19, but to clear massive backlogs from the last two years), we can continue to safely transition to endemicity,” he said.

Khairy also reminded the public that going back to “near normal” does not mean “pre-Covid normal”.

“Do a personal risk assessment before attending a big event, tell your employer to invest in good ventilation and allow you to work from home when appropriate.

“Test if you have symptoms. Report the result and isolate if positive. Be kind and considerate, especially if someone asks you to put on a mask. Be safe,” he said.

Related Articles ‘Go home!’ Covid-hit Shanghai, Beijing tell residents to avoid social contacts China's April exports lowest in two years as virus bites, customs data show Ringing true to Health D-G’s post-Raya warning, Covid-19 cases on the rise with 2,151 new infections