DURING Malaysia’s transition to the endemic phase, almost 98% of active Covid-19 cases will only need to be isolated and quarantined at home rather than being admitted to hospitals, Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said today.

He said this was made possible due to the success of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme (PICK), where most of the infected exhibit only mild symptoms.

Khairy said that the ministry will continue to monitor home-quarantined Covid-19 cases through the Virtual Covid Assessment Centre (VCAC), and that the practice will be continued throughout the transition phase.

“Home isolation monitoring is important because there are patients who need to be referred to hospital when their symptoms worsen.

“Even though the percentage is low (less than 1%), VCAC gives patients peace of mind and provides real data for the ministry.

“VCAC is done via the MySejahtera application where patients submit symptoms they’re experiencing through the Health Assessment Tool (HAT) twice daily,” Khairy said in a series of Twitter posts today.

The health minister added that more than 70% of those quarantined at home submit their HAT daily, and that these data are used to identify cases with deteriorating symptoms and need to be referred to hospital.

Today will be a week since Malaysia officially entered the transition to endemicity.

Yesterday, the country reported 11,994 new cases and 16,603 recoveries, taking the number of active Covid-19 cases to 157,571.

Of the active cases, 153,859 (97.6%) patients are in home quarantine, 341 (0.2%) in low-risk quarantine centres, 3,174 (2.0%) in hospitals.

Khairy said that if a patient’s HAT data shows their symptoms have worsened, then they will receive a notification, giving them the option to head to the nearest health facility for further assessment.

Khairy also said that by this method, it helps to avoid crowding at physical CACs.

Khairy added that to assist the B40 Keluarga Malaysia group with self-assessment and HAT, one million more of Covid-19 Care Packages will be delivered to the group soon.

This will be an addition from the previous two million packages delivered earlier.

The package contains a pulse oximeter, thermometer, Covid-19 self-test kits and face masks. – April 8, 2022.