Omicron BA.5 May Drive Covid Wave In Malaysia: Health Minister
(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Bloomberg
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. 'This is especially important as we face an impending new wave from Omicron BA. 5,” he said, advising people to continue to be cautious when celebrating a religious holiday this weekend.
As of June 30, 13 cases of sub-variants have been detected in Malaysia including five cases of BA.5, six BA.2.12.1 and two BA.6, Khairy said.
The BA.4 and BA.5 sub-variants have become the dominant coronavirus strains in many countries, with more than 110 nations reporting a spike in daily Covid cases linked to the strains, Khairy said in a tweet this week.
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