It has been almost three years since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world with so far more than 651 million cases worldwide with almost 6.7 million deaths reported so far according to WHO figures. Since the beginning of this month, the world began to focus on China where daily cases and deaths increased after the Zero Covid measures were stopped. Looking at this development, Tan Sri Dato' Seri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah advised the public to get a booster dose.
Recommendations are given especially to men if they are front-line workers and are included in the high-risk group. Taking a booster dose is recommended even though new cases of Covid-19 and deaths in Malaysia are still relatively low.
As you already know, the vaccine injection given by the Ministry of Health over a year ago will be less effective after about 6 months. After that period, a booster dose is recommended to reduce the risk of death in case of infection.
The current issue is that a more effective vaccine against the latest variant of Covid-19 is urgently needed. Major pharmaceutical companies have already developed vaccines that are more effective against new variants of Covid-19. In China, low vaccine uptake among the elderly and locally produced vaccines that are not very effective against more recent variants have led to the current situation.