COVID-19 will become endemic, said Khairy Jamaluddin, stressing on the importance of getting vaccinated and strictly complying to standard operating procedure to bring the virus under control.

Endemic refers to a disease that is regularly found among particular sets of people or in a certain area.

“We have to accept that with the rise of the Delta variant, Covid-19 will become more endemic or rather it is out there in the community,” Khairy, who is the coordinating minister for the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme, said in the weekly press conference today.

He said even when Malaysians are fully vaccinated, it is important that other measures like wearing masks, practising physical or social distancing as well as maintaining personal hygiene are followed.

Khairy said vaccination was important, as more new infections now are being linked to the Delta variant.

Taking Labuan and Sarawak, which have high percentages of vaccinated population as examples, he said the hospitalisation and death rates among Covid-19 patients there have dropped.

He said Putrajaya is also hoping for a similar outcome in Selangor and Kuala Lumpur as more people get fully vaccinated.

“Going forward, even with the Delta variant numbers still high, we hope that through vaccination, the death rate, the utilisation of intensive care unit beds as well as rate of hospitalisation come down,” Khairy said.

Khairy said Malaysians should not let their guard down even after vaccination, pointing to countries that were among the fastest to vaccinate their population, reverting to imposing restrictions such as wearing a mask.

He said restrictions such as mask-wearing are here to stay for some time.

Asked if the country is currently passing the peak of the current wave of infections, Khairy said the Klang Valley could be reaching its peak as far as number of cases are concerned.

A total of 21.2 million doses of vaccine have been administered under the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme since it started on February 24.

About 14.24 million people or 43.6% of the population have been partially inoculated with their first dose while 6.95 million or 21.3% are fully immunised with two doses. – August 2, 2021.