Malaysia will no longer use daily virus infections as a metric to ease curbs for states once they enter the second phase of the national recovery plan, Finance Minister Tengku Zafrul Abdul Aziz said.
The government will instead use Covid hospitalization rate as one of the three indicators to allow states to move to the third and the final phase of the plan, he said . The two other thresholds vaccination rate and ICU occupancy will remain the same, he said.
Zafrul said, “Once 40% of adults have been vaccinated, the number of new cases becomes less relevant because most cases show little to no symptoms, hence reducing the burden on public infrastructure,”.
According to the Health Ministry, The nation record 19,819 infections on Wednesday, 98.1% of the cases showed light to zero symptoms. Still, there was always a chance that their health may deteriorate over time, Director-General Noor Hisham Abdullah said in a statement.
According to the health ministry ,With new infections up daily cases topped a record 20,000 for the first time on Thursday the government is focusing on speeding up its vaccination drive. About 31 % of the adult population received both doses of the vaccine, and 62% got at least one dose as on Aug 3.
Zafrul said, The hospitalization rate must be 3 cases per 100,000 of the population for states to move from the second to the third phase, Currently, the states of Penang, Kelantan, Terengganu, Pahang and Perak are in the second phase, which allows for opening up more economic sectors.
The 3rd phase involves reopening of all economic activities with the exception of those on the negative list, according to the plan. Zafrul said, Based on this new indicator , the government allowed Perlis, Sarawak and Labuan to enter the third phase beginning Wednesday.
he said, Get to the final stage, the rate must be 1.3 cases per 100,000 people,. States in this phase may reopen their social and economic sectors under new norms, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said in July. Most states are expected to reach this phase as early as October,
