KUALA LUMPUR, June 21 — Only one severe Covid-19 case who completed vaccination has been recorded so far, Dr Adham Baba said today, indicating that vaccines reduce the risk of serious illness and death.
The health minister said this was found based on limited surveillance on a group of health care workers who were infected with Covid-19 after inoculation. Dr Adham, however, did not offer details on the size of the group and if they were fully or partially vaccinated against the virus.
“Only one [from the group under surveillance] had reached Stage Four. The rest are in Stages One and Two. This shows that vaccinations against Covid-19 work to prevent patients from developing severe illnesses and falling into Stages Four and Five.
“The data show the efficacy of Covid-19 vaccines among health care workers whom we have surveyed and this indicates that the vaccination programme is good and effective,” he told a news conference today.
Stage One of Covid-19 shows no symptoms, whereas Stage Two is mild; Stage Four is severe disease.
The share of Stage Four and Five patients over total new cases recorded per month has tripled to 30.8 per cent or 22,857 cases this month as of June 13, out of 74,254 new cases reported, from 10.6 per cent or 6,751 cases out of 63,213 new cases registered in April. In May, 30,287 Stage Four and Five cases, or 18.5 per cent, were reported out of 163,644 new cases seen during the month.
It was previously revealed that the overall number of Stages Four and Five Covid-19 patients recorded since the start of the pandemic in March 2020 until June 13 stood at 104,122 cases, or about 16 per cent of the country’s 657,508 cumulative cases recorded as of June 13.
Dr Adham also said today that Covid-19 intensive care unit (ICU) bed occupancy is currently at 92 per cent, with 1,096 patients (confirmed, suspected, and probable Covid-19 cases) filling 1,187 beds provided nationwide. A total of 594 confirmed, suspected, and probable Covid-19 patients are on ventilator support, out of 1,291 ventilators available for coronavirus cases.
The government has set a target of maximum 70 per cent ICU occupancy rate to move into Phase Two of the National Recovery Plan, besides a maximum average daily 4,000 Covid-19 cases and complete vaccination of 10 per cent of the total population.
