KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 7 — The Ministry of Health (MoH) has reactivated the Covid-19 National Rapid Response Task Force (RRTF) to monitor and manage the current surge of Omicron cases in the country.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin said the task force will take swift action in the event of an outbreak in a particular area and help expedite the work needed to prevent Covid-19 from spreading further afield.

"Among its duties will be to prepare a field hospital, outsource patients to private clinics and modify beds to accommodate Covid-19 patients.

"For now, we are of the view that the Omicron variant is not as serious as the Delta variant, and hopefully, we may not need many additional beds in existing hospitals,” said Khairy during his Covid-19 briefing today.

The RRTF will be headed by Health deputy director-general (public health) Datuk Dr Chong Chee Keong and Health deputy director-general (Medical), Dr Asmayani Khalib.

Malaysia is seeing a surge in Omicron cases as daily infections breached 10,000 cases two days in a row.

Khairy said with good standard operating procedures (SOPs) and continued uptake of booster shots, the MoH has projected the Omicron wave being brought under control by the end of March.