Coronavirus: ‘New wave’ in Malaysia driven by Omicron BA.5, health minister says
- Steady rise in infections in recent weeks, with Thursday’s tally topping the 4,000-mark for the first time since May when cases surged amid Eid celebrations
- ‘The new wave is here’, health minister Khairy Jamaluddin said as he urged people to continue to be cautious when celebrating a religious holiday at the weekend
Malaysia said the BA.5 variant of Omicron is behind a recent jump in Covid cases, while warning the highly contagious strain could fuel a new wave of infections nationwide.
“BA.5 will be the dominant subvariant driving daily cases,” Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin told reporters on Friday. “The new wave is here.”
Malaysia has been seeing a steady rise in infections in recent weeks, with Thursday’s tally topping the 4,000-mark for the first time since the end of May when cases surged amid Eid celebrations.
The country has rolled back curbs as it moved toward living with the virus, but the spread of the BA.5 variant – known to evade immune protection built up from prior vaccines and infections – has raised concerns.
“Although we have shifted to an endemic phase, we will face ebb and flow”, Khairy said, as he urged people to get booster shots and asked the elderly and high-risk groups to take a second booster dose.