Infectious diseases expert Dr Christopher Lee is glad that the rate of new Covid-19 cases is coming down, but has raised concerns over the number of unlinked influenza-like illness or severe acute respiratory infection (ILI/SARI) that may be spreading.
"Am glad new cases are coming down and the MCO (movement control order) is showing its effects.
"But I'm concerned that in the last 17 days, there have been 40 cases of unlinked ILI/SARI. In fact, in the last six days, there have been 23 such cases.
"It would be good to see where the unlinked cases are coming from and are they spreading even during the MCO?" said Lee, who is former Health Ministry deputy director-general (research and technical support).
Lee was appointed to lead a committee that will review details of Covid-19 deaths in the country by the Crisis Preparedness Response Centre, but stressed that he was speaking in his personal capacity.
The number of new Covid-19 cases detected has been relatively encouraging with 54 new cases on April 18, 69 new cases on April 17, 110 new cases on April 16 and 85 new cases on April 15.
On each of those days, the number of patients discharged exceeded the number of new cases.
However, Lee cautioned that unlinked ILI/SARI cases means we do not know how the victims acquired the infection.
"There is no travel history, no known contact with confirmed cases and no known exposure to a confirmed cluster, for example the tabligh cluster or a specific social gathering.
"It's of concern as it means there is undetected community transmission going on.
"And since it’s undetected, we would not know how to track and close that 'cluster'; hence there is significant concern about ongoing transmission," Lee told Malaysiakini.
He said that the unlinked cases were classified as such when a patient came for treatment and testing because of ILI/SARI and was tested as such even though they did not have any travel or contact with any clusters. - Mkini
He said that the unlinked cases were classified as such when a patient came for treatment and testing because of ILI/SARI and was tested as such even though they did not have any travel or contact with any clusters. - Mkini
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