KJ: M’sians Urged to Mask Up as Country is Currently Facing a Small Covid-19 Wave Due to XBB Variant

Although it appeared as if we were finally rid of face masks and lock downs, there’s no telling when a Covid-19 wave could hit once again to send us back to the previous SOPs.

According to caretaker health minister Khairy Jamaluddin, Malaysia is currently experiencing a small wave of Covid-19 infections, after an increase in case numbers.

Following this fact, Khairy said that mask usage is now “highly recommended” even though it remains voluntary.

He said that between October 23 and 29, new infection cases increased by 16.5% to 16,917 cases from the previous week’s 14,255 cases.

In a press conference at Putrajaya yesterday (October 31), Khairy also that the number of patients in hospitals also grew by 14.3%, for every 100,000 people.

“However, we found that in terms of entry to government hospitals, the most is among those who have mild symptoms. Not serious symptoms and that the use of beds in the intensive care units (ICUs) have only increased by 2%.”

“In other words, we are being faced with a small wave,” he said, adding that the ministry is unsure if the wave will worsen, and it all depends on community efforts to prevent the situation from worsening.

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But, he stressed that overall Covid-19 situation remained under control despite the main indicators.

“This is what it means to live with Covid. We no longer have restrictions, we no longer have mandates, but the Health Ministry must advise and make recommendations when we find that the infection trend has started to increase.”

Meanwhile, Khairy said that while the increase in new cases were found to have been driven by the Omicron variant, the ministry suspected that its mainly the XBB sub-variant.

“Bottomline, cases are rising slightly. Hospitalisations are rising slightly. Nothing to worry about, the situation is under control, but we must take precautions because we are in the transition to the endemicity phase,” he added.

Khairy said that, “Today is just a friendly reminder to Malaysians that yes, we are on an uptrend right now, let’s be careful.”

Have you stopped wearing masks? If so, will you be wearing one once again?

Also read: KJ: Omicron XBB Variant Has Been Detected in M’sia, Cases Set to Increase