Set KPIs to decide when to end emergency and MCO, expert tells govt

 

Enforcement officials have been checking on premises to ensure all standard operating procedures are being followed. (Bernama pic)

PETALING JAYA: A public health specialist has suggested that the government set a list of key performance indicators (KPI) to determine when to call off the emergency and movement control order (MCO), instead of depending on the daily number of new Covid-19 cases.

Dr Khor Swee Kheng said focusing only on the number of cases, or even the infectivity rate, was problematic as these were metrics that could be easily influenced.

“Using a single KPI will lead to an unstable situation where we are over-dependent on that KPI,” he said, adding that the complex Covid-19 crisis required the incorporation of several KPIs to measure “pandemic severity”.

Khor suggested that the government account for a seven-day average of new cases instead, along with the total number of active cases, number of tests performed, death rate, bed occupancy rate in intensive care units and the number of healthcare workers affected.

Dr Khor Swee Kheng.

He said this would bring in “just enough” data to paint a bigger picture of the pandemic situation in Malaysia, but not too much to burden those responsible for analysing this data.

It would also allow any decisions regarding the country’s Covid-19 management to be based on “science, evidence and real-life impact”, all of which were relevant data that the government can share with the public, he added.

Other doctors have previously called on the government to be more transparent and open in its handling of the pandemic, citing the lack of information about activities on the ground.

Dr Musa Mohd Nordin, of KPJ Damansara Specialist Centre, had said it was frustrating that people had to source for Covid-19 data on Malaysia through overseas reports, adding that the country had been left in the dark on the capacity of hospitals until Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin’s speech earlier this week.

Meanwhile, Dr Narimah Awin, former director of the health ministry’s family health development division, said people deserved more data beyond the daily number of new cases and clusters.

Former health deputy director-general Dr Christopher Lee had also called on the government to work together with stakeholders from other sectors, and for other ministers to come forward and play their part in engaging with the public. - FMT