Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii has urged the government to plan a national testing strategy to reflect the severity of the Covid-19 situation, citing a high positivity rate in the country.
The DAP lawmaker said this testing strategy should outline comprehensive steps for each phase of the intervention, whether containment or mitigation.
“It must have clear objectives and defined approaches and methods, in order to achieve the desired health outcomes while handling the current surge of cases, or in preparation for future outbreaks.
“The first prong of such a strategy must incorporate ways to increase its testing capacity to truly reflect the real disease burden on the ground,” Yii (above) said in a statement today.
He noted that the country recorded 95,772 tests conducted yesterday, with a high 12.51 percent positive rate which is more than twice the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended rate of less than 5 percent.
“This not only shows that the pandemic is out of control, but also shows that we are severely under-testing and as a result, we may be failing to detect hidden cases and outbreaks in the community,” Yii added.
The parliamentary select committee for health, science and innovation chairperson said that the proposed mass testing will enable individuals with Covid-19 to be diagnosed earlier resulting in faster isolation and treatment to prevent serious cases and deaths.
Yesterday, the country saw a record high of 199 deaths, and a total of 33 cases brought in dead.
Yii stressed the need for the government to look at regulating the recently available self-testing kits, subsidising saliva-based Rapid Test Kit-Antigen (RTK-Ag) tests, and implementing clear standard operating procedures (SOPs) for industries. These SOPs include risk assessment-based testing and more frequent testing for high-risk industries.
“All of this has to be incorporated into our country’s national recovery plan as well as to prepare ourselves for the new normal to live with an endemic Covid-19.
“The government seems to be putting all its eggs into the vaccination basket. While I acknowledge the importance of vaccination, we still cannot ignore the fundamentals of public health which is adequate testing for quick detection, and effective contact tracing for quick isolation and support,” he added.
Separately, Kulai MP Teo Nie Ching called for the Health Ministry to explain why it failed to conduct more tests in June, and why it prevented MPs from offering free or subsidised screening for the public.
She claimed that it was contradictory to the five actions taken by the ministry, as outlined by Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah on May 30, to tackle Covid-19 during the movement control order (MCO) - which included increased testing.
"We did not do more testing in June. In fact, we did less testing in June, even though the full lockdown was extended to four weeks.
"In May, 2,661,888 testings were conducted but in June, only 2,491,232 screenings were recorded.
"Why was targeted mass testing not conducted as promised? The Health Ministry owes us an answer," Teo said in a statement today.
She added that not only did the government fail to conduct mass testing, but it also did not allow some elected representatives to do so.
Teo cited the applications from Parit Yaani and Yong Peng assemblypersons to conduct RTK-Ag screenings which were rejected by the Batu Pahat District Health Office in June and earlier this month.
These calls from Yii and Teo came after their party's national publicity secretary Tony Pua yesterday urged the Health Ministry to drastically increase its targeted testing and implement a national testing plan in order to effectively fight Covid-19. - Mkini
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