With Covid cases rising, Malaysians urged to go for booster shot
PETALING JAYA: With the number of severe Covid-19 cases among vaccinated people increasing in Malaysia, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin has called on all to take booster shots.
He said the effectiveness of vaccines start to wane after a few months, with the Sinovac vaccine being the quickest to lose its effectiveness.
"While Sinovac is effective, there is evidence its effectiveness wanes sooner. That's why we want you to take whatever booster is on offer," Mr Khairy tweeted.
He explained that the faster waning period is the reason why the interval for Sinovac booster shots is three months, compared with six months for Pfizer's and AstraZeneca's.
In his tweet, Mr Khairy shared a graph showing data for Covid-19 admissions at Hospital Sungai Buloh in Selangor. It revealed that most of Category 4 and 5 patients were Sinovac recipients.
Both categories refer to seriously ill patients in intensive care units. Patients under Category 4 require oxygen assistance while those under Category 5 need to be ventilated.
Over one seven-day period earlier this month, 165 Sinovac recipients were admitted to Hospital Sungai Buloh as Category 4 and 5 patients.
In comparison, 24 were Pfizer recipients and only seven had taken the AstraZeneca vaccine.
Mr Khairy's warning comes as Malaysia recorded 4,854 new Covid-19 cases yesterday, the Health Ministry said.
In a Twitter post, Health Ministry director-general, Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, said the country has recorded 2,586,601 Covid-19 cases since the pandemic began.
Earlier, the Health Ministry had said through its CovidNow portal that 41 Covid-19 fatalities were recorded on Saturday, bringing the death toll to 29,978.
As at yesterday, 76.5 per cent of the country's population had been fully vaccinated and 78.6 per cent had received at least one dose of a vaccine.
Malaysia started administering booster shots last month. To date, more than a million booster shots have been administered nationwide. - THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
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