Dec 4, Kuala Lumpur: Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin yesterday announced that Omicron has arrived in Malaysia. A South African student travelling from Johannesburg via Singapore to KLIA was found with the variant. The student of a private university in Ipoh, she was fully vaccinated and asymptomatic, and released after a 10-day quarantine. The good news is that everyone who was in contact with her had been screened and found to be negative. 

The new Omicron variant has been designated a “variant of concern” by the WHO on 26 November. It has caused concern among scientists and public health officials due to an unusually high number of 30-50 mutations in the spike protein, a component on the surface of the virus that allows it to bind to human cells and gain entry to the body. This may potentially make the virus more transmissible and less susceptible to existing vaccines. Although preliminary data in infected young patients appears to show it is more infectious, but not necessarily more deadly, this has to be taken cautiously as young patients generally have less severe COVID-19 disease.

Cases have been identified in more than two dozen countries on every continent except Antarctica. Since Wednesday, when a California resident who returned home from South Africa was identified as the first American infected with Omicron, officials have detected the variant in states as far-flung as New York, Colorado, Nebraska, Minnesota and Hawaii.

This highlights the major public health and ethical issues of wealthy countries hoarding vaccines while poorer nations struggle to obtain them. This provides more opportunities for SARS CoV-2 to replicate and mutate more among the unvaccinated, leading to more infectious, immune-resistant or lethal variants.

Intense research into this new variant from Botswana and Southern Africa has just begun and leaders all over the world have urged against panicking — and to get vaccinated.    The good news is that we are one of the leading countries with regards to vaccinations and booster vaccinations currently.

Based on the Health Ministry’s COVIDNOW portal updated on 4 Dec 2021 at 10am, a total of 25,433,150 or 77.9% of the Malaysian population have been vaccinated. As for the adult population, 22,714,044 individuals or 97% of them had completed the vaccination, while 23,044,061 individuals or 98.4% had received at least one dose of the vaccine. Another 2,828,401 individuals or 89.9% of the adolescent population had received at least one dose of the vaccine. And a total of 2,719,106 individuals or 86.4% of adolescents aged between 12 and 17 in the country had completed their Covid-19 vaccination as of Friday (Dec 3). Last but not least, a total of 2,844,621 booster doses have been administered.

Author: Dr Ng Kee Seong