COVID-19 | In recent days, the number of Covid-19 new cases categorised as "lain-lain saringan" (other screenings) has been on the rise in the Klang Valley.
On Dec 15, Selangor reported 503 new Covid-19 cases of which 273 cases were categorised as "other screenings" - more than the total number of new cases in Sabah for that day (260).
The Health Ministry does not define "other screenings". However, from Covid-19 case reporting by the Selangor Health Department and the Health Ministry's reporting methods up until Oct 6, it can be determined that "other screenings" include:
Voluntary screening, screening of individuals with symptoms, screening of health workers, targeted community screening, screening at domestic airports, pre-wedding screening, screening of those returning from Sabah, pre-surgery screening, pre-departure screening, signing-off from a vessel screening, and workplace screenings, among others.
A high number of new cases detected through "other screenings" would therefore set off alarm bells that Covid-19 was very widespread within the community in Selangor.
This was once the case in Sabah. From Sept 30 to Oct 6, as observed from the chart above, a large proportion of new cases involved people who were only diagnosed after they had shown Covid-19 symptoms.
As the case numbers grew, the Health Ministry on Oct 7 changed its reporting methods, possibility for the sake of brevity, by consolidating data on those showing symptoms with "other screenings".
Unlike Selangor and Sarawak, the Sabah Health Department only reports new case number according to the mukim (locality) level.
In the case of Selangor, the data provided is far most robust.
Malaysiakini sampled data from the Selangor Health Department between Dec 10 to Dec 16 and found that the majority of cases classified as "other screenings" were from targeted workplaces.
Health authorities have intensified screening efforts for dorms of factory and construction site workers in recent weeks.
In contrast, the number of cases detected through the screening of those with symptoms ranged from 15 a day to 29 during the sample period.
Therefore, unlike the Sabah situation in early October, the vast majority of new cases detected in Selangor could be traced to clusters or targeted workplaces.
This is not to suggest that Klang Valley residents are relatively safe from Covid-19 cases as long as they don't work in factories or construction sites as Malaysiakini's daily list of locations affected by Covid-19 has already proven otherwise.
Klang Valley residents are also advised not to engage in unnecessary travel.
When Malaysiakini questioned Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah on Monday on the rise in cases detected through "other screenings", he explained that these are "sporadic" cases which have yet to be attributed to clusters and require further investigation. - Mkini
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