Upko wants Sabah govt to test all contacts exposed to Covid-19 patients

 

The Sabah government must not follow in the footsteps of Putrajaya's decision to limit contact tracing procedures to only those who show symptoms, says Sabah's United Progressive Kinabalu Organisation (Upko) president Wilfred Madius Tangau.

The Tuaran MP said this is because Sabah's borders are vulnerable to foreigners due to its long coastline and the existence of jalan tikus (illegal routes) along the Indonesian and Philippine borders.

"Decision-makers in Putrajaya cannot assume that every part of Malaysia is like the Klang Valley, where police roadblocks are enough to stop inter-state and inter-district travels.

"In Sabah, how do we set up roadblocks on the South China Sea and the Sulu Sea?" he said in a statement.

Wilfred opined that abiding by Putrajaya’s one-size-fits-all policy on contact tracing means Sabahans would be extremely vulnerable to the threat of imported Covid-19 cases.

"Can’t the state government reject a flawed policy that might be lethal to our community’s safety?" he asked.

Previously, the Health Ministry issued a circular on new procedures where close contacts who don't show symptoms won't be tested.

As for Covid-19 clusters, only a percentage of the group will be tested as there is not enough capacity to test everyone due to the high load of cases.

Meanwhile, Wilfred urged the state government to assert its autonomy to continue to test on all contacts who have been exposed to the virus within an identified cluster.

"The Sabah government must summon its moral courage to assert our autonomy on health-related issues. It has the political strength to force Putrajaya to listen to us.

"It must therefore take charge over this war against Covid-19 for the sake of the security, safety, and health of Sabahans," he said.

Wilfred also suggested the state government hire more health frontliners to be stationed at quarantine centres in case the currently available employees under the federal Health Ministry are unable to cope with the exponential number of Covid-19 patients.

"Consequently, this is the reason that I tabled the motion to cut all RM85 million for the federal government’s spin-doctoring agency, the Special Affairs Department (Jasa), so that half of the fund, RM42 million, might be earmarked for Sabah.

"If only all Sabah MPs had supported my motion, we might have the chance to force the Finance Ministry to transfer half of Jasa’s RM85 million to Sabah," he said.

He stressed that in the future, matters like health, education, policing, and transportation must be jointly made by the federal and state governments.

"Such decentralisation must happen not only for Sabah and Sarawak but for all states," he said. - Mkini