Highlights of Khairy’s press conference on Covid-19 status in Malaysia on 7 February

After recording over 11,000 Covid-19 daily cases on (7 February), Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin held a press conference to talk about a few updates on the situation in Malaysia and the ministry’s plans to deal with this pandemic.

According to Khairy, the Health Ministry has reactivated the Covid-19 National Rapid Response Task Force (RRTF) to ensure high preparedness to face the Omicron wave.

“The RRTF is a special committee that will implement rapid preliminary action to control transmission in a state or area, among which is adding beds and remodelling non-Covid-19 beds, building field hospitals and outsourcing patients to private hospitals,” he said.

Apart from the Task Force, Khairy also emphasize the motto “any booster is better than no booster”, where he said that the public will be granted access to pick the vaccine of their choice which will also henceforth include Sinovac, among Pfizer and AstraZeneca.

He also said that those aged 60 years and above or full dose Sinovac recipients (18 years and above) must get their booster shot before 1 March, or else they will lose their fully vaccinated status and restrictions will be made at certain entrances.

On the other hand, Khairy said that should your RTK antigen self-test show a positive result, you should report the results on MySejahtera and go on home-isolate and home-manage, instead of going for a PCR or to the CDC.

Khairy explains that this is a sensible step as thousand of cases are currently flooding in and only individuals with critical symptoms or those who are high-risked, would be contacted and monitored by authorities.

Meanwhile, Khairy said the government encourages and advises all employers to allow their employees to continue working from home (where possible) for the time being, or to have them coming in on a rotational basis. He also suggested that offices should provide self-test kits to their employees. 

He also reminded those who partake in large-gathered events to do what they must do, which is to practice strict SOPs, perform self-test and switch on your MyTrace.

We’ve manage to flatten the curve previously and we’ll be able to do so this time! Practice the SOPs and stay safe!