According to Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, the country is seeing positive outcomes of the Covid-19 vaccine.
Dr Noor Hisham said that cases in the Klang Valley will also drop once 50% of its population have been vaccinated by 31 August 2021.
“We are already seeing some positive results, whereby in the Klang Valley when we started vaccinations for the elderly, the age group of 60 and above, patients in Sungai Buloh Hospital decreased and now we are seeing age groups of 40 to 59 and 20 to 39 also decreasing in the last week,” he added.
Other than the expected drop in cases in Klang Valley, he also said that the Covid-19 vaccines used in Malaysia have been proven to be effective against the Delta variant, based on the fact that vaccinations in Labuan and Sarawak had managed to reduce hospital admissions, intensive care unit (ICU) bed usage and use of ventilators for Covid-19 patients.
“The R-naught for Wuhan virus started from 2.5, which means one person can infect 2.5 people but now this virus (Delta) was reported at five to eight, which means if 100 people get infected, they infect 500 to 800 people in one cycle. They are similar to chicken pox (11 to 12) and measles (18),” he stated, according to BERNAMA.
The Delta virus has a much higher infectivity rate, hence the higher transmissions recorded in the country compared to last year. Dr Noor Hisham also added that more variants are expected to emerge, as mutations happen when there are infections that cause the virus to enter and multiply in the lungs.
Besides, the results of clinical trials that study the use and efficacy of Ivermectin will be available by next month, according to him. The Ministry of Health (MoH) will conduct a study on three types of drugs to treat Covid-19 patients as announced by the World Health Organisation (WHO), namely artesunate, imatinib and infliximab.
Dr Noor Hisham stated that 190 homeless people had been fully vaccinated in the first phase of “Vaksinasi Covid-19 Gelandangan@WPKL” in Kuala Lumpur and 133 people in the second phase.
As of 13 August 2021, there are a total of 26,851,765 vaccine doses administrated in Malaysia.
Also Read: KJ: Teens Aged 12-17 With Underlying Medical Issues Will Start Receiving Vaccines Soon
