KUALA LUMPUR, July 13 — There have been fewer admissions in hospitals nationwide for those aged above 60 as many have been vaccinated against Covid-19, Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said today.

He said this trend must continue, and those who have been vaccinated but get infected and only showing mild symptoms may quarantine at home.

He said there have been incidents and data that showed that apart from still being vulnerable to the virus despite the vaccine, the chances of developing severe symptoms are lower.

“We see fewer patients aged above 60 as many have been vaccinated so we must increase our vaccination efforts to find those who haven’t received their doses,” he said today during a press conference.

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Dr Noor Hisham said there were frontliners who had both doses but developed symptoms two weeks after getting vaccinated.

He said the majority of the 2,779 Health Ministry staff who were infected after getting their second dose were in Categories 1 (asymptomatic) and 2 (symptomatic, but with no pneumonia).

“From this number, the majority were Stage 1 and 2. There were only three individuals whose condition went to Stage 3 and three who went to Stage 4.

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“This shows that with vaccines you have some immunity to the virus and we want to start allowing those with mild symptoms who’ve been vaccinated to quarantine at home if they are reinfected,” he added.

Dr Noor Hisham also said with the stronger variants spreading, data has shown that if you are infected the chances of infecting another is only 50 per cent.

He urged more Malaysians to step forward and get vaccinated or register if they haven’t.