KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 20 —The Omicron variant currently dominating COVID-19 infections is not virulent, according to Ministry of Health (MOH) Public Health Medicine Specialist Dr.

PUTRAJAYA, Dec 3 — A total of 3,626 Covid-19 cases were reported during the 47th epidemiology week (ME 47/2023) from November 19 to 25, an increase of 57.3 per cent compared to the 2,305 cases recorded from the previous week.

KUCHING, April 28 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) still encourages people to wear face masks in public places or if they have symptoms of Covid-19.

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 4 — The International Air Transport Association (IATA) has urged governments to listen to experts, including the World Health Organisation (WHO), that advised against travel restrictions.

KUALA LUMPUR, Jan 3 — Two Omicron variants of Covid-19, namely BA.5.2 and BF.7, which made up about 80 per cent of the variants currently infecting China, have been detected in Malaysia since March 16 and August 21 last year, respectively.

JAKARTA, Oct 23 — Indonesia has reported the first local transmission of the Omicron XBB variant in the country.

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 23 — The headlines are everywhere, even as masks are not.

LOS ANGELES, Sept 1 — The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) on Wednesday authorised updated Covid-19 vaccine booster shots from Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech that target Omicron subvariants.

SYDNEY, July 21 — Australians admitted to hospitals from Covid-19 neared record levels on Wednesday as authorities urged businesses to let staff work from home and recommended people wear masks indoors and get booster shots urgently amid a major coronavirus outbreak.

SEOUL, July 16 — South Korea's new Covid-19 cases reached a 66-day high at over 41,000 on Saturday amid the spread of a highly contagious new Omicron subvariant.

MOSCOW, June 12 — A more contagious subvariant of the COVID-19 Omicron strain has slipped into Russia, Sputnik reported, quoting a senior official at the national consumer health watchdog Rospotrebnadzor.

SINGAPORE, May 16 — Singapore has detected two local Covid-19 cases infected with the BA.4 variant, and one local case infected with the BA.5 variant, according to the republic’s Health Ministry (MOH).

KUALA TERENGGANU, April 16 — The Covid-19 Omicron variant is still considered a serious threat, especially for high-risk groups.

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 28 — Malaysia's Covid-19 infectivity rate (Rt) was at 1.06 yesterday, a 0.02 decrease from the 1.08 Rt reported on Saturday.

BANGKOK, Feb 21 — A Thai virologist warned that daily Covid-19 cases may reach 100,000 amid the BA.2 sub-variant of Omicron spreading rapidly in the kingdom.

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 16 — The Covid-19 Omicron variant does not cause patients to lose their sense of smell like the Delta variant, said Ministry of Health's National Institutes of Health's Institute for Medical Research (Microbiology and Immunology) pathologist Dr Masita Arip.

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10 — Having lived with Covid-19 since two years ago, Malaysians should have been more aware by now of the spread of the virus and taken the initiative to reduce their movement in view of the recent surge in Covid-19 cases.

KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 8 — Vaccinations and booster dose uptake have helped the country to do better in dealing with the Omicron wave, by reducing the number of hospital admissions, Intensive Care Unit (ICU) cases, and deaths, said Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah.

PUTRAJAYA, Feb 7 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) expects the Omicron wave to subside in the next one to two months thus allowing Hari Raya Aidilfitri to be celebrated in early May without movement restrictions.

PUTRAJAYA, Feb 7 — The Health Ministry (MOH) is strengthening the Covid-19 Clinical Care Pathway for the purpose of introducing the latest antiviral drugs to treat high-risk Covid-19 patients, said Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin.