Don’t open borders in haste, Putrajaya told

 

Former deputy health minister Dr Lee Boon Chye says the government should monitor hospital admissions and the Covid-19 death rate before deciding to reopen the nation’s borders.

PETALING JAYA: Former deputy health minister Dr Lee Boon Chye has urged the government to refrain from deciding to reopen Malaysia’s borders without mandatory quarantine for travellers.

He said borders should be reopened only after the Omicron wave had been brought under control.

Lee also said the government should monitor the rate of hospital admissions and Covid-19 deaths until next month before making a decision.

Commenting on National Recovery Council chairman Muhyiddin Yassin’s suggestion that borders be opened on March 1, he said the former prime minister should explain the basis of his recommendation.

Dr Lee Boon Chye.

Lee said the government should be more proactive in promoting Covid-19 booster doses for adults and vaccination for children.

Last Tuesday, health minister Khairy Jamaluddin was quoted as saying the Omicron wave would peak at the end of March. Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has warned that daily Covid-19 cases are expected to reach 22,000 by that time.

Cases have tripled since the start of the month, rising from 5,566 on Feb 1 to 17,134 cases yesterday.

However, epidemiologist Dr Sanjay Rampal of Universiti Malaya agrees with Muhyiddin, saying reopening Malaysia’s borders would be the way forward in living with the virus.

“The transmission of the Omicron variant has already been established in the community. Therefore, any quarantine on incoming visitors serves no additional benefit now,” he told FMT.

Dr Sanjay Rampal.

“Strict border control and quarantine measures are useful to prevent the entry of new dangerous variants. However, it is neither appropriate nor cost-effective at this time.”

Sanjay said the risk of severe effects from the Omicron variant in the vaccinated population was much lower compared with the Delta variant in the previously unvaccinated population.

“We need to re-calibrate our perception and interpretation of the number of new daily cases,” he said. “For example, 40,000 daily cases now could be the equivalent of 10,000 daily cases last year.”

But he also said the government, in reopening the borders, must ensure sufficient capacity for public health activities like testing, risk assessment and isolation of cases, contact tracing and quarantine.

“The R0 (rate of infectivity) will increase rapidly if our public health services are overwhelmed,” he added. - FMT