THERE has been no proven public health approach that people should be infected with the Covid-19 Omicron variant to help build herd immunity, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

He said such an approach has not even been proven valid.

“It doesn’t matter what sort of variant – Omicron, Delta, Alpha and Beta – don’t go voluntarily looking to get infected because we do not know its effects.

“Second, we do not know the effects of ‘Long Covid’. Today, we might say Omicron is milder than Delta and therefore why don’t we all get infected with Omicron to achieve herd immunity and so on.

“This is not proven. We know Omicron is milder but that doesn’t mean you should get it,” he said, before going on to repeat government doctrine that people ensure they get their Covid-19 booster shots.

He said 99% of those infected with Omicron in Malaysia were in categories one and two.

Khairy said the Health Ministry was expecting an increase in Covid-19 cases this month and in February as a result of increased public movement during Christmas, the school holidays, New Year, Thaipusam and Chinese New Year.

“MOH expects that in the next one or two months, we will see some increase (in cases) but as long as hospital and ICU admissions are under control and the fatality rate continues to dip, we are in control of the situation,” he said.

He said the situation in Selangor was also still under control, although it remained the state with the highest number of daily cases.

“Among the reasons for this is that the international entry point is located in Selangor and travellers are recorded in this state although they are not necessarily from Selangor,” he said. – Bernama, January 16, 2022.