There has been a huge jump in COVID-19 cases recorded among adolescents aged under 18 this year, compared to last year.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said that over 400,000 cases has been reported thus far, compared to only 12,000 throughout last year.

Of the total, 252,569 cases involved schoolchildren and 42,831 involved preschool children, news portal Free Malaysia Today (FMT) quoted him saying at a webinar titled "Hidup Bersama-sama Virus COVID-19: Kanak-Kanak dan Remaja" this morning.

Khairy also revealed that 62 adolescents have died from the virus so far this year.

On vaccination, Khairy said that 2.5 million students aged between 12 and 17 have received the first dose of their COVID-19 vaccine nationwide, so far.

Despite this, he said that vaccination was not the only way out for the society to protect itself from the virus.

He urged everyone to continue abiding by safety and preventine measures in place to keep the virus at bay.

Previously, Education Minister Radzi Jidin had revealed that 8,269 schoolchildren have been infected with COVID-19 from Jan 20 to May 7 this year.

More than 2.22 million people have been infected with COVID-19 in the country thus far, while 25,935 people have died from it.

The global COVID-19 infection and death tally has surpassed 234 million, and 4.78 million, respectively.


Source: FMT
Photo source: The Star