COVID: Omicron BA.5 variant likely to cause increase in cases - Khairy

KUALA LUMPUR: Five Omicron BA.5 variant cases have been detected in Malaysia and are likely to spread widely, resulting in an increase in COVID-19 cases, said Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.

He said that as of June 30, a total of 13 Omicron sublineage cases were being closely monitored, namely six cases of BA.2.12.1; five cases of BA.5; and two cases of BA.5.2. All these cases were found positive between May and June.

"To date, no cases of Omicron BA.4 variant have been recorded. If we look at it in terms of epidemiology in other countries, BA.5 is the main sublineage affecting the increase in cases globally and we expect BA.5 to continue further increasing the number of daily cases in Malaysia.

"Omicron BA.5 is the most easily spread version of the COVID-19 virus to date (compared with previous Omicron variants, namely BA.1 and BA.2) but it also has the feature to infect those already infected with Omicron BA.1 and BA. 2," he said in a press conference here today.

He said that the situation had also resulted in an increase in hospital admissions in countries such as Singapore, Portugal, the United Kingdom and others.

Khairy, however, said that information from Israel and the United States showed individuals who had completed the primary vaccination and received two booster doses, especially those aged 60 and above, had lower mortality rates than those who had only one booster dose.

On the expected peak period of the Omicron BA.5 variant, he said that the MOH expected cases to increase within one or two months, three months at the most, based on experience dealing with the previous Omicron variant waves.

Asked about the severity of the Omicron BA.5 and BA.4 variants compared with BA.1 and BA.2, Khairy said, for now, the MOH did not see any change in case severity.

"I was informed by infectious disease specialists, that most likely the severity of this BA.5 variant is not worse than the original Omicron wave. We are expecting the severity to be roughly the same as the initial Omicron variant," he said.

He said that the new daily number reported for epidemiological week 27 (July 3 to 7) recorded an increase of 31 per cent, from 11,394 to 14,967 cases, compared with the number of cases reported for the same period in epidemiological week 26 (June 26 to 30).

Meanwhile, Khairy said that three main strategies were currently outlined to weather the new wave of COVID-19, namely vaccination among the population, COVID-19 treatment for high-risk individuals using antiviral drugs and compliance with the standard operating procedures (SOPs).

He also advised individuals who have not yet received a booster dose and those who are eligible to receive a second booster dose to get it immediately.

According to him, as of yesterday, a total of 16,152,022 (68.60 per cent) individuals had received the first booster dose of the COVID-19 vaccine while the number of individuals eligible to receive the first booster dose according to the criteria set by the MOH was 23,545,221.

"This brings the total number of those who have yet to receive the first booster dose to 7,393,199 (31.40 per cent)," he said, adding that a total of 2,339,792 eligible individuals have not yet taken their second booster dose.

-- BERNAMA