What will the daily peak of the Omicron wave in Malaysia – will it be thrice the Delta daily peak like USA and UK, over 20 times like in South Korea or nearly 60 times like in Hong Kong?
What will be the daily peak of the Omicron wave in Malaysia?
We cannot be like India, which at present, its daily peak during the Omicron wave of 347,254 new Covid-19 cases on 20th January 2022 is lower than its daily peak of Delta wave of 414,433 new Covid-19 cases on 6th May 2021. New Covid-19 cases in India has come down to 13,166 cases yesterday.
Yesterday, Malaysia under the Omicron wave recorded 32,070 new Covid-19 cases, which is over 30% of the Delta daily peak of 24,599 new Covid-19 cases on 26th August 2021
We have not reached the Omicron daily peak, but will it be like the USA and UK where they recorded an Omicron peak which was about three times the Delta daily peak, or will it be like South Korea whose Omicron daily peak is about 20 times that of the Delta peak, or even worse, like Hong Kong where the Omicron daily peak is about 60 times the Delta daily peak.
This is not known yet but the signs in the ASEAN region is quite encouraging that it is unlikely that the Omicron wave in Malaysia would reach the South Korea or Hong Kong levels.
In the Philippines, after an explosive surge of Omicron wave, it reached a daily peak of 38,867 new cases on 15th January 2022 as compared to the Delta daily peak of 26,208 new Covid-19 cases on 11th September 2021 – or about one-and-a-half times that of the Delta daily peak. Yesterday, it recorded 1,624 new Covid-19 cases.
Indonesia reached a Delta daily peak of 56,757 new Covid-19 cases on 15th July 2021, but under Omicron wave, it has reached a peak of 64,716 new cases on 16th February 2022. It recorded 57,426 new Covid-19 cases yesterday.
Singapore has the highest increase in the daily peak of Omicron wave when it recorded 26,032 new Covid-19 cases on 22nd February 2022, which was about five times its Delta daily peak of 5,324 new Covid-19 cases on 27th October 2021, followed by Vietnam whose Omicron daily peak yesterday of 69,128 new Covid-19 cases is over thrice its Delta daily peak of 20,454 new Covid-19 cases on 30th December 2021.
The Omicron wave has to be monitored closely, as the mortality rate where there are 224 Covid-19 deaths in the past five days are unacceptably high.
The Health Ministry warning that serious infections were mostly occurring among the unboosted should be taken seriously.