Where’s the mass testing, asks Anwar

 

The number of Covid-19 tests ranged from 89,227 on May 31 to 105,293 on June 4, says Anwar Ibrahim.

PETALING JAYA: The government must explain why mass testing has not yet been implemented and why the number of tests conducted daily has remained low, opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has said.

Citing data from the past week, he said tests ranged from a low of 89,227 on May 31 and a peak at 105,293 on June 4, with a positivity rate around 7%. The figures suggested that a high number of cases going undetected, he said.

Malaysia should almost triple the daily testing rate to meet the World Health Organization’s recommendation of 10 to 30 tests per confirmed Covid-19 case, he said.

He questioned what rationale was behind not ramping up testing efforts, and suggested it could be to conceal the government’s poor management of the pandemic.

“For the sake of all Malaysians I sincerely hope the reason for lower testing is not to report lower cases in order to claim a victory where there is only more failure and loss of life.”

He said undetected cases would result in more infected people not being quarantined, and potentially spreading the infection to others “and in a few weeks we will be facing another massive surge in cases, ICU admissions and deaths”.

Anwar said mass testing would allow the authorities to properly ascertain the true extent of the spread of Covid-19 and take measures to isolate cases and conduct contact tracing to protect the general public.

He added the government’s tactics to combat the pandemic were not sufficiently developed and were emblematic of an inability to execute mitigation measures, despite having battled the pandemic for nearly 15 months. - FMT