The academy has observed that more and more people are leaving their homes for non-essential travel, indicating weariness of living with restrictions, an AMM spokesman told FMT.
“We believe that public understanding of the virus and preventive measures is high, but fatigue may have taken hold and caused people to let their guard down,” he said.
AMM welcomed the health ministry’s call for self-isolation of asymptomatic cases, but the spokesman said the government must establish a good system for home-based quarantine before enforcing such a rule.
“Global data show that many asymptomatic cases do not progress to more severe forms of the disease and can be treated from home,” he said.
“As such, should the health ministry decide to transition to a home-based isolation policy for asymptomatic patients, there must also be a robust tracking system to ensure patient compliance.”
Malaysian Medical Association president Dr Subramaniam Muniandy noted that self-isolation was already being practised in some countries.
“We are fortunate that both mild and severe cases of Covid-19 are being warded in our government hospitals,” he said.
“In some countries in Europe, only cases with severe symptoms are being admitted while those with mild symptoms are told to isolate and recover at home.”
Noting that home quarantine would be suitable only for certain people, Subramaniam said the health ministry must focus on identifying those with pre-existing medical conditions so they could be given priority access to hospital treatment.
The occupancy rate at public hospitals is now 81%.
He said he believed Malaysia would probably continue to record a high number of Covid-19 cases in daily testing well into the new year.
This would be because of the mandatory screening of foreign workers, namely those at construction sites and factories.
Early this week, health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah urged individuals who had tested positive but were asymptomatic to self-isolate while waiting for officials to get in touch with them.
He said the ministry was dealing with a large number of cases in the Klang Valley and that this had caused logistic problems and delays in transporting patients to hospitals.
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