Rokiah Mahmud
Minister of Health Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham bin Haji Jaafar yesterday called on the elderly and those with chronic illnesses to get the booster shot amid the third COVID-19 wave in the Sultanate.
“Findings from the Ministry of Health’s (MoH) ongoing monitoring and research of severe cases and deaths due to COVID-19 have shown that two doses of the vaccine can provide up to 95 per cent protection against the severe effects of the infection,” he said at the daily press conference.
However, he added, “the third dose is capable of increasing and enhancing such protection up to five fold”.
The minister urged those eligible for the booster shot to visit vaccination centres for the top-up vaccine as soon as possible.
Currently, 56.5 per cent have been boosted against COVID-19.
Dato Seri Setia Dr Haji Mohd Isham also said nine cases in Category 4 requiring oxygen assistance are under closing monitoring, while eight cases are in Category 5, requiring artificial ventilation in the intensive care unit.
The minister also announced three deaths in the past 24 hours, one categorised as death due to COVID-19; one categorised as not due to the virus; and the third still under investigation.
Meanwhile, 4,005 new cases have been detected, bringing the tally of confirmed cases to 88,849. Of the new cases, 3,419 were from antigen rapid test (ART) screening uploaded onto the BruHealth app, while the remaining 586 were discovered from 4,482 RT-PCR laboratory tests performed in the past 24 hours.
The minister said 3,566 cases have recovered, bringing the total number of recoveries to 50,112 and total active cases at 38,594.
The bed occupancy rate at isolation centres is at 9.8 per cent or 351 cases, he said, adding that 38,243 positive cases are undergoing home self-isolation.
