1 Covid-19 death, new variant detected by health ministry

Health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad says the death involves a senior citizen while the new variant is called XFG.

Health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad said a total of 43,087 cases have been reported so far this year, compared with 85,297 cases for the same period in 2024, a decrease of 49.5%.

PETALING JAYA:

 One Covid -19 death was recorded by the health ministry in Epidemiological Week 35/2025 (EW35).

This was revealed by health minister Dzulkefly Ahmad in a post on X yesterday, Bernama reported.

He said that the deceased was a bedridden 91-year-old senior citizen.

“This brings the total number of Covid-19 deaths this year to three (as reported in EW 24/2025, EW 30/2025, and EW 35/2025),” he added.

The minister also said that a new Covid-19 variant, XFG, had been detected, accounting for 8.2% of the total cases recorded in EW35.

He added that the number of new cases in EW35 showed a 12.8% decrease, with 594 cases compared with 681 in EW34.

According to Dzulkefly, through genomic surveillance, the NB 1.8.1 variant remained dominant, accounting for 39.4% of the cases, followed by JN.1 (18.1%) and XEC (13.3%), while other variants made up 21%.

“As of EW35/2025, a total of 43,087 cases have been reported so far this year, compared with 85,297 cases for the same period in 2024, a decrease of 49.5%,” he said.

He advised the public to continue practicing basic preventive measures, especially frequent hand washing, wearing face masks if symptomatic or in crowded places, and getting vaccinated if they are at risk. - FMT