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A health worker prepares a Covid-19 vaccine shot in Kuala Lumpur. Photo: Xinhua

Published: 11:38am, 5 Aug 2021Updated: 10:47pm, 5 Aug 2021

Malaysia will no longer use the number of recorded daily Covid-19 infections as a metric to ease curbs for states once they enter the second phase of the national recovery plan, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz has said.

The government will instead use Covid-19 hospitalisation rates as one of the three indicators to allow states to move to the third and the final phase of the plan, he said on Facebook. The two other thresholds – the rate of vaccinations ICU occupancies – will remain the same.

“Once 40 per cent of adults have been vaccinated, the number of new cases becomes less relevant because most cases show little to no symptoms, hence reducing the burden on public infrastructure,” Zafrul said in a video message.

While Malaysia added a record 19,819 infections on Wednesday, 98.1 per cent of the cases showed light to zero symptoms, according to the health ministry.

Still, there was always a chance their health may deteriorate over time, Director General Noor Hisham Abdullah said.

With new infections piling up – daily cases topped a record 20,000 for the first time on Thursday – the government is focusing on speeding up its vaccination drive.

About 31 per cent of the adult population received both doses of the vaccine, and 62 per cent got at least one dose as on August 3, according to the health ministry.