MALAYSIA is expected to move from pandemic to endemic stage of Covid-19 by the end of October, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today. 

The endemic phase will begin once 80% of the adult population in the country is fully vaccinated. As of August 31, 64.2% of Malaysia’s adult population have been fully vaccinated.

“We will wait till the end of October where 80% of the adult population is expected to be fully vaccinated. 

“I believe by then we will reach a phase where we have to start living with the virus. Right now, there are some states in mitigation and containment mode.

“In the case of Labuan and Sarawak, they are pretty much in the endemic phase,” the new health minister said at a press conference in Putrajaya today. 

An individual is considered fully vaccinated against Covid-19 after 14 days of receiving their second shot in the case of two-dose vaccines, or 28 days in the case of single-shot vaccines.

In the endemic phase, more sectors will be allowed to re-open and new norms or standard operating procedure will be improved, Khairy said.

Mask-wearing will continue to be mandated, he added.

“We have seen how some countries who have started to live with the virus but initially removed the mask-wearing mandate.

“However, they have to re-introduce mask-wearing again with the emergence of new variants,” he said.

Endemicity will also mean that self-testing for Covid-19 will become a norm, and to this end, price control will be imposed for self-test kits, Khairy added. – September 1, 2021.