In encouraging people to get their boosters, the ministry said the Covid-19 case fatality rate was the highest among those who were unvaccinated, coming up to 1.43%.

On the other hand, it said, the case fatality rate among those who have been fully vaccinated stood at 0.54%, followed by those who had their first booster dose (0.13%) and those who had their second boosters (0.1%).

“The data shows that the case fatality rate is the lowest among those who have received their booster doses. The main risk factors in Covid-19 deaths are age, gender and comorbidities.

“Get your vaccines, including your first and second boosters, to obtain optimum protection from Covid-19,” it said in a Twitter post, adding that it was citing data from July 1 to Dec 31.

Health minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa had urged the public to get their second booster doses in light of the spike in Covid-19 cases in China and the reopening of its borders.

She had urged those who received their first booster dose more than six months ago to get a second one instead of waiting for the bivalent vaccine, which targets the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 in addition to the original Covid-19 strain.

She had noted that only about 49.8% of Malaysians have received their first booster dose while 1.9% have received their second booster dose.