Is Malaysia suffering a new Covid-19 crisis, losing control of the Covid-19 pandemic with over 5,000 new Covid-19 cases for the last two days – 5,439 cases on Wednesday and 5,522 cases yesterday.
The last time Malaysia had over 5,000 cases was on December 10, 2021, when the country recorded 5,508 cases.
The cumulative total of Covid-19 cases is now 2,855,570 cases.
It is too early to tell whether Malaysia is facing new Covid-19 crisis and that we have lost control of the Covid-19 pandemic.
This is because of the new Covid-19 variant, Omicron, which is believed to be two to three times more transmissible than the Delta variant, but is associated with a milder disease than its predecessor, with some public health experts comparing its effect on vaccinated individuals to the flu.
In an interview with the AFP news agency earlier this week, the World Health Organization’s director for Europe, Hans Kluge, said it was “plausible” that Omicron was pushing the world towards the end of the pandemic, although he stressed it was still too early to declare COVID-19 endemic.
It is heartening to see that since the signing of the confidence-supply-reform (CSR) Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between Prime Minister Ismail Sabri and the four Pakatan Harapan leaders on Sept. 13 last year (the daily death toll on Sept. 11 was 592 deaths), the daily fatality numbers have been in double-digit figures for the past three months and fluctuating between 9-31 daily deaths in January 2022.
If not for the CSR MoU, we might have ended 2021 with five to 10 million Covid-19 cases and 100,000 – 200,000 Covid-19 deaths instead of 2.75 million Covid-19 cases and 31,500 Covid-19 deaths on Dec. 31, 2021.
But the increase in Covid-19 cases in the last two days though not in fatalities must be followed closely to ensure that Malaysia is not facing a new Covid-19 crisis and that we have lost control of the Covid-19 pandemic.
(Media Statement (2) by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Gelang Patah on Friday, 28th January 2022)