WHO: No nation can offer Covid-19 testing for all

CORONAVIRUS | Covid-19 testing is important to identify those affected but there should be a priority on who should undergo them, said Dr Takeshi Kasai.

According to the regional director of the World Health Organisation (WHO) for the Western Pacific, the reason for conducting targeted tests is that there is no country which can offer enough testing to every citizen.

"With few exceptions, there's no country which can offer enough testing (for everybody). So there must be a priority on who should be tested," he said in a teleconference from Manila today.

What is more important, he said, the test is not just about numbers, but should provide a picture on where the country is in terms of infection.

"So it's important to obtain that information (from the test)," he added.

Kasai was responding to a question that Japan had not conducted enough polymerase chain reaction (PCR) test.

"If there is a confirmed case, it should trigger (the frontliners) to trace and quarantine contacts so that we can minimise the spread of the virus in the community," he said.

In Malaysia, the Ministry of Health has been conducting targeted tests which, according to director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, proved to be effective.

In non-enhanced movement control order (MCO) areas, only those who have symptoms, history of travel overseas, especially to high-risk countries, or had contact with known positive patients, would be tested for the virus.

As of April 20, the total number of infections in Malaysia is 5,425, while the death toll is 89.

On April 19, Noor Hisham (above) said Malaysia has screened and tested more than 105,000 cases but only 5,389 were then positive, which is about five percent of the total cases tested, while other countries have their figures at six or seven percent.

“So if we look at our five percent, that means we have fulfilled the benchmark set by WHO which is 10 percent. We have less than 10 percent," he had said.

WHO lauds China for cooperation

Meanwhile, Kasai also lauded China for its cooperation in sharing information about the virus since its early stage of detection.

"China has responded to our inquiries about the cluster of pneumonia of unknown colds and since then, we have had a daily exchange (of information).

"What we have observed, China has been sharing information under the international health regulation to other countries.

"Once they were confident, they announced that this is a new virus, with more sharing of information, it allowed other countries to set up a test," he said.

The exchange of information, Kasai said, had begun since December 2019.

Kasai also advised countries to ease the lockdown gradually to avoid the spike of Covid-19 cases and for the society to adapt to the "new norms".

"Society needs to adopt new ways of living.

"For the private sector, they must adopt a new way of working such as establishing steps to work from home.

"And for the government, to have a system to detect and care for the people.

"We look forward to attending events such as birthday parties, but for now, we urge everybody to work together to contain the virus and protect the vulnerable," he added. - Mkini