“Long Covid” refers to the lasting after-effects of the coronavirus, with many sufferers around the world reporting feeling symptoms such as lethargy, body aches and difficulty focusing for months after their recovery from Covid-19.

With more than two million people having already contracted the virus, Mohamad, or better known as Tok Mat, said it was possible that there were many Malaysians already feeling the effects of “Long Covid”.

“Our policies in response to this pandemic cannot stop at prevention and treatment. It must also include long-term treatment of former patients and different kinds of related research,” he said in a Facebook post.

“Malaysia should have special policies and strategies in place to identify, investigate and rehabilitate the long-term effects of Covid-19 on sufferers.”

He said Malaysia must also boost its yearly healthcare budget to account for the challenges posed by the virus, even with more than half of the population fully vaccinated.

“Our health investment can no longer be 4% of our gross domestic product (GDP). It’s time we targeted an allocation of 7%-8% of the national GDP for the health sector,” he said.

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