Malaysia Braces For Possible Omicron-fuelled Wave, New 'battlefield' Awaits

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 17 (Bernama) -- Malaysia is bracing itself for a new wave of COVID-19 brought by the heavily mutated Omicron variant, which has spread to more than 77 nations including three continents - Africa, Europe and Asia. To date, the country has reported two confirmed cases with 18 more pending test results. "Please brace yourself for Omicron. It is coming...and it is here already, it's just a matter of time," said Malaysian Health Minister, Khairuddin Jamaluddin at a press conference when he reported two COVID-19 Variant of Concern (VOC) cases. Khairy noted that he had informed Health Director-General Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah to send all medical frontliners back to the "battlefield." The two Omicron cases involved an 8-year old Malaysian girl who arrived in the country together with her mother and her siblings on Dec 5 from Lagos (Nigeria).The first case of the Omicron variant in the country involved a 19-year old non-Malaysian girl from a private university in Ipoh, Perak, who arrived in the country on Nov 19. She was fully vaccinated and asymptomatic. On Nov 26, 2021, the World Health Organisation (WHO) announced the first case of the Omicron variant was first detected in Gauteng province, South Africa. According to a study conducted by Japanese scientist, Hiroshi Nishiura, the Omicron variant is 4.2 times more transmissible in its early stage than Delta. China and Indonesia are among the latest to have reported their first cases of Omicron. The United Kingdom (UK) reported its first official death due to Omicron on Dec 14 after the first case was detected in the country on Nov 27. Yesterday alone, UK reported 88,376 new COVID-19 cases, bringing total cumulative figure to 11,097,851. Meanwhile, Malaysia Thursday recorded 4,262 new daily cases of COVID-19, bringing the total cumulative figure to 2,707,402. With the cumulative figure of 2,707,402, Malaysia now ranked 21st in the list of 222 nations/territories struck by the COVID-19 pandemic. Ahead of Malaysia is the Philippines (2,837,016) and the Netherlands (2,936,761). Of 4,262 new cases announced Thursday, Dr Noor Hisham said, only 78 cases (1.8 per cent) were categories 3, 4 and 5 while 4,184 cases (98.2 per cent) were categories 1 and 2. According to MOH, category 5 is for critical cases requiring ventilators; category 4 is for patients needing oxygen assistance and category 3 is for patients with pneumonia. Category 1 is for patients who are asymptomatic and category 2 is for those with mild symptoms. Total COVID-19 recoveries as of Thursday stood at 4,985 cases, bringing total recovered cases to 2,620,147 (96.8 per cent). Of 284 COVID-19 patients warded at the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) Thursday, 135 cases needed respiratory assistance. Another 37 fatalities were registered Thursday, bringing the total cumulative figure to 31,026 cases. COVID-19 was detected in Malaysia on Jan 25, 2020, when three Chinese citizens, who had entered Malaysia through Johore from Singapore on Jan 23, were tested positive for the disease. New variants of the COVID-19 coronavirus have since emerged in the United Kingdom (identified as B117) in September 2020, South Africa (501Y.V2) in October 2020 and India (B.1.617), also in October 2020. Cumulatively, Malaysia's COVID-19 cases have breached the one million mark as on July 25, with 1,013,438 cases. The first time daily cases reached the five-digit level was on July 13 with 11,079 cases. -- BERNAMA