You definitely need to have anti-virus in your laptop, at least a good one and updated so that they will able to caught this malware. Although criminals are always one step ahead, so you also have to be self-aware of their attack vector. Maybe you need to observe that your hardware is somewhat slowing down and acting strange. So that could also be a sign that some malware or virus might have infected your pc already. It's not that 100% though, you still need to just observed and not to click on anything or update your software from unknown source so that the chances are slim that your pc will get any kind of virus or malware or even crypto miner.
Yes to stay safe online we need to use good updated antivirus program which acts as our first line of defense against harmful software. And we all know very well that no single program can protect us completely. It is also crucial to be smart and careful ourself. For example if our computer starts acting strangely or slowing down it could be sign of problem. Most important thing we can do is to avoid clicking on unknown links or downloading software from untrusted websites as this is how most infections happen. With combining good software with smart habits you can greatly reduce risk of virus or malware attack.