Symptomatic flood victims will be screened for Covid-19: Health DG

 

Flood victims evacuated to relief centres will be screened for Covid-19 if they display symptoms of infection or are close contacts of a positive case.

Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said guidelines for evacuees staying at relief centres have also been drawn up so they can follow the standard operating procedures (SOP) to prevent the spread of the virus. 

“If they have symptoms, then we will screen them. We are not going to screen everyone (at the relief centres), unless they are like a close contact and so on,” he said at his press conference in Putrajaya today.

Public health actions are being taken at the centres, he added, and the ministry is ensuring that there are places to wash hands and that people are wearing face masks and keeping social distance.

It is not just the spread of Covid-19 they are worried about in the centres, he said, but there are also other diseases to protect against as well.

“This is our preparation every year, but this year is slightly different because of the steps taken to prevent Covid-19."

Various areas throughout the country have experienced floods in the past few days which resulted in people being evacuated from their homes to temporary shelters.

This included areas in Larut, Matang and Selama in Perak, three other districts in Malacca as well as in Kuala Selangor and Sepang in Selangor.

On a separate matter, Noor Hisham revealed that 87 percent of Covid-19 deaths had co-morbidities while 64 percent of Covid-19 deaths were those above the age of 60.

“We have to take care of these high-risk, vulnerable groups.

“We are also looking into vulnerable groups like those in nursing homes, the Orang Asli community and the longhouses, on how to protect them and make sure those coming in are not from red zones and not carrying any infection,” he said.

Amid questions on whether the ministry is doing enough screening, Noor Hisham again stressed that Malaysia’s testing and positive detection rate is well within the recommendations of the World Health Organisation (WHO).

He also pointed out that while the WHO only recommended the usage of RTK antigen testing for Covid-19 in September, the government has been using RTK antigen tests since May 6.

“On May 6, we started using RTK antigen tests in our clinics, our hospitals and the Kuala Lumpur International Airport (KLIA), et cetera.

“On July 16, we re-evaluated the RTK antigen test and it showed that the sensitivity had increased to 90 percent.

“The WHO only recommended the RTK antigen usage in September,” he said. - Mkini