KUALA LUMPUR (Bernama): Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah reminds all those who have completed two doses of a Covid-19 vaccine not to misuse the special privileges or relaxed restrictions granted by the government.
Dr Noor HIsham said, in a Facebook post Saturday (Aug 21), that if the people let their guard down, all the hard work and achievements so far would be useless and would likely cause the country to face another "battle" against Covid-19.
"We must remember that a portion of the country’s population is not vaccinated yet and they are at risk of Covid-19 infection.
"We need to ensure that the transmission rate is as low as possible to prevent its spread or the emergence of new variants," he said.
In addition, he reminded individuals who tested positive for Covid-19 or were close contacts to positive cases, to immediately undergo isolation or quarantine so as not to expose others to the risk of infection.
Meanwhile, in another Facebook post, Dr Noor Hisham said a preliminary study had shown that in the case of a breakthrough infection, the Delta variant is able to grow in the noses of vaccinated people to the same degree as in unvaccinated people.
Dr Noor Hisham said previous studies in hospitals in India; Provincetown, Massachusetts in the United States; and Finland had shown that after vaccine breakthrough infections with Delta, there could be high levels of the virus in people’s noses whether they were vaccinated or not.
"The virus that grows is just as infectious as that in unvaccinated people, meaning that vaccinated people could transmit the virus and infect others,” he said.
Dr Noor Hisham said despite the possibility of breakthrough infection able to infect others, inevitably, vaccinated individuals are still protected against severe infection and fatality, adding that this means reduced hospital admissions and utilisation of intensive care unit (ICU) beds.
"As such, please get vaccinated,” he added. - Bernama