PETALING JAYA: A strong and efficient vaccination programme will offer the public a pathway to live with the Covid-19 virus, say health experts.
They, however, say that while eased restrictions can be considered for fully vaccinated individuals, this is best done when more people in the country are inoculated.
International Islamic University Malaysia epidemiologist Prof Dr Jamalludin Ab Rahman said vaccines were developed with the intention to prevent transmission and reduce severity of symptoms.
“From the Phase 3 trials of the vaccines, it is clear that the vaccines are able to reduce the severity of the disease.
“The other objective of preventing transmission is good, but perhaps it is not as consistent as preventing severe Covid-19.
“The efficacy of the vaccine’s first dose is about 30% to 60% in preventing symptomatic diseases from Delta variants. With two doses, this can go up to about 80%,” he said.
He cited the United Kingdom as an example, saying that although the number of infections had been on the increase, the mortality and hospitalisation rates were still kept down to a certain level.
However, he added that to have a clearer picture of how effective vaccinations were in the country, data on the hospitalisation rates and the number of patients suffering from severe Covid-19 should be made public.
“We don’t currently have data on how many symptomatic patients there are, and how many are in the wards,” said Prof Jamalludin.
On easing restrictions, he said Malaysia could consider it but only when the current situation was under better control.
“People are afraid of the current situation, with many patients in the emergency department and over 10,000 cases.
“I prefer if we do it in phases later on. For instance, allowing gatherings with limited numbers and then gradually allowing interstate travel,” he said.
Universiti Malaya professor of occupational and public health Dr Victor Hoe said the proposed easing of restrictions might incentivise people who were still hesitant to get vaccinated, but the country must also ensure there were enough vaccines for everyone.
“Before restrictions can be loosened, Malaysia needs to first get the pandemic under control.
“Currently, with the low vaccination rate and high prevalence of the disease in the community, we cannot consider loosening some restrictions for those who have been vaccinated,” he said.
Prof Hoe said that even with the variants, all vaccines approved were still effective against people getting severe disease or hospitalised.
“There are people who have completed two doses of the vaccine but who get infected with the Covid-19 virus,” he acknowledged.
He pointed out that in January when only 9.35% of the UK’s population had one dose, the death rate was 18.46 per million population.
“This has reduced to 0.42 per million when the percentage of people who have received at least one dose is 64.41% in July,” he said.
He added that a recent study on Sinovac showed that the vaccine was 65.9% effective for preventing Covid, 87.5% in preventing hospitalisation and 90.3% in preventing ICU admission.
Universiti Malaya professor of epidemiology and public health Dr Sanjay Rampal said the efficacy of vaccines in preventing transmission might have been somewhat reduced by the emergence of new variants.
“However, these vaccines are reported to still be very efficacious in reducing hospitalisation and mortality,” he said.
As an example, he cited a study which showed that the Pfizer and AstraZeneca vaccines were 96% and 92% effective against hospitalisation after two doses.
“Vaccination of our population greatly decreases healthcare utilisation and mortality, but they should remain voluntary.
“People will likely continue to get Covid-19 in the future, those who have been vaccinated will likely get milder disease whereas those who refuse to take the vaccine must accept higher risk of ill health and mortality,” he said.