The PH immunisation committee said that despite the number of people being tested nationwide dropping by 46% – from 87,458 on the eve of Hari Raya to 47,480 on the third day of Hari Raya – the number of positive cases has not dropped at the same rate.
They noted that the rate of positive cases on Hari Raya was 5.78%, which subsequently increased to 7.32% and 8.72% on the second and third day of Hari Raya, respectively.
The committee said it was above the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommended rate of 5%.
“This clearly shows that we are not testing enough, which also means that the daily numbers may not clearly reflect the real numbers of those infected on the ground,” it said in a statement today.
“Therefore, we urge the government to run large-scale community screening initiatives in utilising RTK-Ag for rapid surveillance in tandem with automated contact-tracing, quick isolation and the provision of appropriate material and psycho-social support.”
So far, only Selangor offers mass Covid-19 community testing through a programme which will run from May 8 to June 10 and covers all 56 state constituencies.
The committee stressed that only by significantly ramping up testing and tracing capacity will the country be able to identify the silent carriers of Covid-19, and thus be able to isolate and quarantine them to prevent further transmission into the wider community.
It said this was crucial as 89% of the Covid-19 cases reported between April 9 and May 8 were sporadic, signifying that the virus has disseminated widely into the community.
It also urged the health ministry and the Covid-19 Special Committee for Ensuring Access to Vaccine Supply (JKJAV) to take steps to ramp up the vaccination rate, saying that the national Covid-19 immunisation programme was “very slow”.
“We urge the government to prioritise these two major pillars of the Covid-19 pandemic management.
“Only then will we be able to outpace the Covid-19 transmission, mitigate the mutation of variants of concern and remain ahead of the pandemic curve.
“Until and unless this twin-pronged strategy is optimised, we will perpetually experience pendular swings of viral waves and remain trapped in a vicious cycle of movement control orders (MCOs) which is absolutely detrimental to our lives, livelihoods and the national economy.”
Meanwhile, PH MPs from the Federal Territory of Kuala Lumpur have also urged federal territories minister Annuar Musa to emulate the Selangor state government in offering free community screenings to detect Covid-19 within the community and limit its spread.
In light of KL routinely recording over 300 daily cases of late, the MPs said in a statement that Annuar needed to “act more aggressively” to implement mitigation tactics.
“The screening programme will be able to identify those who are likely to be ‘silent carriers’ of the Covid-19 virus, that is, people who are positive but do not have any symptoms and are at risk of infecting other individuals,” they added.
According to the MPs, those aged between 20 and 40 were identified as being ‘silent carriers’ due to them being less likely to exhibit symptoms while positive, and therefore more inclined to carry on as normal while being infectious.
The statement was endorsed by Tan Kok Wai (Cheras), Fong Kui Lun (Bukit Bintang), Teresa Kok (Seputeh), Dr Tan Yee Kew (Wangsa Maju), Fahmi Fadzil (Lembah Pantai), Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad (Setiawangsa), P Prabakaran (Batu), Lim Lip Eng (Kepong) and Hannah Yeoh (Segambut).
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