Dr Amar-Singh HSS, a consultant paediatrician, said that the Covid-19 pandemic was expected to last for another six to nine months, with more breakthrough infection cases among fully vaccinated individuals.
He added that Malaysians should not be complacent with the high vaccination rate in the country – they just needed to look at other countries that have seen a spike in cases despite having a high vaccination rate.
“Look at Germany with 64% of its population fully vaccinated and Singapore with 82%. They are still reporting a high number of new Covid-19 cases,” Amar said in a webinar organised by the Penang Institute.
He also suggested that the health ministry monitor the Covid-19 outbreak accurately by looking at new hospital admissions instead of looking at daily new cases as the latter does not give the real picture on the pandemic’s severity.
On the issue of vaccine efficacy against the Covid-19 Delta variant, Amar said the efficacy rate of the Sinovac vaccine is lower compared with Pfizer-BioNTech and AstraZeneca.
He cited Sarawak which is currently leading in the number of daily cases reported despite having 67% of its population fully vaccinated.
“More than 79% of the vaccinations (in Sarawak) used the Sinovac vaccine,” he said.
However, Amar emphasised that there was inadequate data available to study the efficacy rate of Sinovac against the Delta variant.
“There is a poverty of data available to study the efficacy rate of Sinovac against the Delta variant.”
Amar called for Malaysians to learn to coexist with the Covid-19 virus by properly observing SOPs outlined by the health ministry.
He also urged the public and private sectors to ensure that all government departments, offices and schools are properly ventilated.
“A Unicef study found that one out of five children in inner cities is afraid to go back to school. That is why it is important for parent-teacher associations (PTAs) to work with the schools to ensure that the environment is safe for children.
“Ensure that poor students have an adequate supply of face masks so they don’t use the same masks regularly, and carry out screenings for Covid-19 at least once a week,” Amar said.
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