Khairy pleads for senior citizens to get their boosters as Malaysia records 105 COVID-19 deaths yesterday

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has revealed 105 COVID-19 deaths were reported in Malaysia yesterday. Although the hospital and ICU capacity remains at moderate levels, the number of daily COVID-19 deaths is showing an upward trend although it isn’t as high as the Delta wave between July to September 2021.

According to Khairy, he wants the control the COVID-19 fatalities, and data has shown that unvaccinated and unboosted senior citizens have a higher risk of death if they contracted COVID-19. He pleads for everyone to get senior citizens boosted as quickly as possible before the Ramadhan month.

As announced recently, the government has announced the “transition to endemic” phase which will begin on 1st April 2022. Besides the reopening of international borders and the lifting of business operating hour limits, the federal government is allowing mosques and other houses of worship to conduct religious activities without social distancing.

Khairy said most old folks may stay at home most of the time but they are more likely to gather in large crowds for Terawikh prayers during the holy month of Ramadhan. He urged everyone to “top-up” their protection levels by getting their COVID-19 vaccine booster shot.

There has been a steady rise in COVID-19 deaths in the last couple of weeks. According to COVIDnow, there were 413 COVID-19 deaths among senior citizens aged 60 and above, and 127 COVID-19 deaths among adults aged 18 to 59. Even among children below 18, there were 8 deaths recorded in the last week, which is the highest in almost 6 months.

On the COVIDnow dashboard, the death rate per 100,000 adults among the unvaccinated is 2.19, which is significantly higher than fully vaccinated individuals with a rate of 0.33. Meanwhile, boosted individuals have a much lower rate of COVID-19 death at 0.06.

As of 16th March 2022, 97.5% of total adults in Malaysia have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 but only 65.4% have been boosted. This means about 7.5 million adults have not gotten their booster shot yet.

Individuals who were fully vaccinated with Sinovac vaccines as well as fully vaccinated senior citizens (of all COVID-19 vaccine types), must get their booster shot by 31st March 2022 in order to retain their “fully vaccinated’ status on MySejahtera. For Sinovac recipients who are hesitant to get a Pfizer or AstraZeneca booster, the Ministry of Health is allowing them to choose Sinovac as their prefer booster jab.

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• COVID-19: Here are the SOPs for unvaccinated and fully vaccinated travellers entering Malaysia from 1st April
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