Why is Malaysia having the longest third Covid-19 wave in the world?
What struck me during the Chinese New Year was that thousands of people fully masked gathered in Taiwan for the concert welcoming the Chinese New Year demonstrating the “Live with Covid” re-opening of social activities.
Yesterday, Taiwan recorded 56 new Covid-19 cases and zero Covid-19 deaths, and it has a cumulative total of 18,958 Covid-19 cases and 851 Covid-19 deaths.
Malaysia has not reached that stage, with new Covid-19 cases jumping from five thousand to seven thousand yesterday, reaching 7,234 new cases – which was more than thrice the daily caseload of new Covid-19 cases on January 11, 2021 when Emergency was declared by the previous Muhyiddin government to combat the Covid-19 pandemic, viz 2,232 new cases.
Yesterday, Malaysia recorded five Covid-19 deaths, one more than when Malaysia declared Emergency on January 11, 2020 when there were four Covid-19 deaths.
Malaysia’s cumulative totals yesterday were 2,895,014 Covid-19 cases and 32,011 Covid-19 deaths.
The Health Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin has advised the public not to panic with the increase in the daily tally of Covid-19 cases of late as the number was already expected to be on the rise following the spread of the Omicron variant.
He said: “What we need to do now is to look into the severity of the cases, not on the number of cases. If we simply look at the number, of course, we would be worried, but no need to panic.
“The MOH is constantly monitoring those important data and what we are seeing now is a lot more short stays in the hospital. So far, we are seeing the rise of cases but this is not related to severity.”
The government has predicted that daily new case numbers could reach 15,000 per day if nothing is done, but the question now is whether daily new case numbers would still reach 15,000 cases per day despite what the government has done.
This also raises the question why Malaysia is having the longest third Covid-19 wave in the world?
The peak of the third wave in Malaysia which started with the Sabah state general election in September 2020 was 24,599 new cases on August 26, 2021 and the peak of the daily fatality rate was 592 deaths on 11th September 2021.
The lowest daily numbers reached in the third wave after August 26 was 2,342 daily new cases on January 17. 2022 - more than January 11, 2021 – and five daily Covid-19 deaths on 29th January 2022, still higher than the four deaths recorded on January 11, 2021.
One notable aspect of the Covid-19 pandemic is that for the last 11 days, we have reversed the situation for the last five months where Malaysia recorded more daily new Covid-19 cases than Indonesia, like on 26/12/2021 when Malaysia had 2,778 new cases as compared to Indonesia’s 92 daily new cases or Malaysia having 30 times the daily new Covid-19 cases than Indonesia although Indonesia has over eight times the population of Malaysia.
For the last 18 days, Indonesia’s daily new Covid-19 cases shot up from three-digit (one day in two-digit numbers) to four-digit figures.
Yesterday, Indonesia had 32,211 new Covid-19 cases and 42 Covid-19 deaths compared to 7,234 new Covid-19 cases and 11 Covid-19 deaths in Malaysia.
Are we better than Indonesia in handling the Covid-19 pandemic or worse?
The arrival and spread of the Omicron Covid-91 variant has changed the scenario for the Covid-19 pandemic.
Omicron is more transmissible than Delta but less severe and lethal.
The question whether it will it prolong or contribute to the end of the pandemic phase of Covid-19 is one all countries are seeking for an answer.
South Africa, for instance, no longer requires those who test positive for Covid-19 without symptoms to isolate and has also reduced the isolation period for those with symptoms by three days, as the country exits its fourth wave of the coronavirus.
The Parliamentary Special Select Committee on health, science and innovation should hold public hearings to hear to views and suggestions of public health experts on the best ways to handle the new developments in the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia.