Recently, the newly appointed Minister of Health, Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad said that his ministry will issue advice on the proposed Covid-19 booster injection in the coming weeks.
This implementation focuses on vulnerable groups and those who are more at risk.
His speech was made after reports related to the increase in Covid-19 cases almost doubling within a week by the Ministry of Health. It begins to show its impact a few weeks before the holidays and year-end celebrations.
Dr Dzulkefly also assured Malaysians that the stock is sufficient and can protect the public from any strains, sub variants and new variants of the Covid-19 virus.
Last year the Covid-19 vaccine formulation was updated to a bivalent formulation targeting the Omicron variant as well as the original strain. This year's formulation was updated with a monovalent formulation based on the XBB.1.5 variant which was the prevalent Omicron subvariant at the time.
The two updated versions have not yet been brought to Malaysia.
Director General of Health, Datuk Dr Muhammad Radzi Abu Hassan advised the public to start wearing face masks when in crowded areas with friends and family. This is due to an alarming increase with 12,757 reported cases compared to 6,796 cases at the beginning of December.
Overall, the percentage of Covid-19 deaths from January 25, 2020 to December 9, 2023 is 0.72 percent.
