PETALING JAYA: The rate of Covid-19 deaths is the lowest among those who have been given their booster doses of the vaccine, says the health ministry.
In encouraging people to get their boosters, the ministry said the Covid-19 case fatality rate was the highest among those who were unvaccinated, coming up to 1.43%.
On the other hand, it said, the case fatality rate among those who have been fully vaccinated stood at 0.54%, followed by those who had their first booster dose (0.13%) and those who had their second boosters (0.1%).
“The data shows that the case fatality rate is the lowest among those who have received their booster doses. The main risk factors in Covid-19 deaths are age, gender and comorbidities.
“Get your vaccines, including your first and second boosters, to obtain optimum protection from Covid-19,” it said in a Twitter post, adding that it was citing data from July 1 to Dec 31.
Health minister Dr Zaliha Mustafa had urged the public to get their second booster doses in light of the spike in Covid-19 cases in China and the reopening of its borders.
She had urged those who received their first booster dose more than six months ago to get a second one instead of waiting for the bivalent vaccine, which targets the Omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5 in addition to the original Covid-19 strain.
She had noted that only about 49.8% of Malaysians have received their first booster dose while 1.9% have received their second booster dose.
