PHOTO: REUTERS/Lim Huey Teng

The Malaysian government is making preparations for the endemic phase of Covid-19 as infection cases, death rates and hospitalisation victims begin to taper after heightened pandemic activity in the month of August this year.

There was a decline in the national daily reported cases and an even more pronounced decline in the number of Covid-19 cases that were ventilated or in the Intensive Care Unit (ICU). These trends correlated well with a decreasing trend of test positivity ratio.

Until Sept 27, the positivity rate stood at 9.8 percent, a decrease from the 14.8 percent recorded on Sept 16, which was the highest peak from April onwards.

Experts contend that no matter what the government did there would still be new cases of Covid-19 but it would have less of an impact on the healthcare system due to the decreased risk of complications in vaccinated people.

The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends that movement restrictions be implemented in high intensity for only short periods and only when the healthcare system is overwhelmed.

As Covid-19 became endemic there would always be a baseline number of new cases daily but there is not enough data yet to accurately estimate this baseline number.

The positivity rate being kept less than 5 percent was relevant during the late containment stage or earlier but once the outbreak was already in the mitigation stage, the value was no longer helpful in managing the outbreak.

-THE MALAYSIA VOICE