Malaysia changes tack as it breaches 20,000 new cases

KUALA LUMPUR • Malaysia reported a record 20,596 new cases of Covid-19 yesterday, breaching the 20,000 mark for the first time, the Health Ministry confirmed.

It was the second straight day that a daily case record was reached, as the country logged 1,203,706 Covid-19 cases since the start of the pandemic. The death toll also breached the 10,000 mark, with 164 new deaths.

While Malaysia racks up new cases, it will no longer use daily infections as a metric to ease curbs in states once they enter the second phase of the national recovery plan, said Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz.

The government will instead use Covid-19 hospitalisation rates as one of three indicators to allow states to move to the third and final phase of the plan, he said in a video posted on Facebook yesterday.

The two other thresholds - vaccination rates and ICU occupancies - will remain the same, he said.

"Once 40 per cent of adults have been vaccinated, the number of new cases becomes less relevant because most cases show little to no symptoms, hence reducing the burden on public infrastructure," said Mr Zafrul.

While the country added 19,819 infections on Wednesday, 98.1 per cent of the cases showed light to zero symptoms, according to the Health Ministry.

Still, there is always a chance that their health may deteriorate over time, said director-general of health Noor Hisham Abdullah.

The hospitalisation rate must be three cases per 100,000 of the population for states to move from the second to the third phase, said Mr Zafrul.

Currently, the states of Penang, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Perak are in the second phase of recovery, which allows for opening up more economic sectors.

The third phase involves reopening all economic activities.

Based on this new indicator, the government allowed Perlis, Sarawak and Labuan to enter the third phase on Wednesday, said Mr Zafrul.

To get to the final stage, the rate must be 1.3 cases per 100,000 people, he said. States in this phase may reopen their social and economic sectors under new norms, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said last month. Most states are expected to reach this phase as early as October.

With new Covid-19 infections piling up, the government is focusing on speeding up its vaccination drive, which is progressing rapidly with more than 490,000 doses administered on Wednesday.

About 33 per cent of the adult population have been fully inoculated with both doses of the vaccine, while 63.8 per cent have received at least one dose, according to the Health Ministry.

THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK, BLOOMBERG