Speaking at a panel discussion on “Weathering the Surge”, organised by World Bank Malaysia, Adeeba said the World Health Organization (WHO) had updated its guidance on public health and social measures on the pandemic.
The update includes guidelines on new hospitalisations per 100,000 population, mortality or number of deaths per 100,000 population, case incidence or new cases per 100,000 population and the test positivity rate.
Malaysia is currently at community transmission Level 3 for case incidence as well as test positivity, she said.
Adeeba stressed that without adequate surveillance, along with better contact tracing, testing and isolation strategies, the same issues will persist when the country prepares to reopen for Phase 2 under the national recovery plan.
She also said the government should look beyond daily cumulative case numbers for better informed and more nuanced public health measures that were also more targeted.
There is also an urgent need to utilise artificial intelligence (AI) technology for contact tracing and to pin down exact locations that may have future clusters.
“I know we set our targets (based on daily cases) but it really needs to be much more nuanced than that.
“For instance, right now, our test positivity rate nationally is around 6%, but the range is huge, from 13% in Labuan and less than 1% in Perlis. One can argue, do some places really need to be shut down?”
During a televised address recently, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin outlined the four phases the country will move through as it navigates the Covid-19 pandemic.
Transitioning between phases will be dictated by three key indicators — the average number of daily cases, the state of the country’s health system and how many people are fully vaccinated.
At today’s forum, Adeeba elaborated on contact tracing and testing, and said different testing strategies could be applied for different industries, arguing that there was no coherent or national strategy for high-risk areas, such as manufacturing or construction sites.
The health ministry must also come out with a clearer policy on the different tests available, to address confusion on the ground on the efficacy of the RTK antigen and RT-PCR tests, especially for community-based testing.
“What this (confusion) has led to is either duplication or delays in isolating and contact tracing because of the over-reliance on RT-PCR.”
She added that the new generation RTK Antigen and other kinds of rapid test kits are improving in terms of sensitivity and specificity, and can even be more cost-effective.
“The new generation of RTK Antigen tests not only perform better, but with mass procurement, some can be bought for anywhere between US$1 (RM4.17) and US$2 per test.
“That would certainly not just ramp up public health sector measures but industries, too, I dare say. They would also be willing to test more frequently with that kind of cost.”