Pointing out the high positivity rate and increase in sporadic cases, Bakri MP Yeo Bee Yin said the previous government’s approach to FTTIS was among the “wrong strategies” it used in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic.
“With severely insufficient testing and primitive methods in tracing, it is impossible to isolate the positive cases effectively to prevent further spread in the community,” the former energy, science, technology, environment and climate change minister said in a Facebook post.
“As the government is planning to reopen the economy while managing the spread of Covid-19, it cannot rely solely on vaccination. A multi-pronged strategy is needed and an effective FTTIS is definitely one of the most important elements to be added.
“We’ve been calling for action to improve FTTIS for more than a year but it has fallen on deaf ears. I hope the newly-appointed health minister will be more open to suggestions and (will) act on them.”
She also attached a chart of the high average positivity rate of the various states in the country from Aug 11 to 26 and a graph showing the percentage of sporadic cases detected from July 1 to Aug 15.
Yeo noted that except for Labuan, all the other states and federal territories’ positivity rates are well above the World Health Organization’s benchmark of 5%, with more than 10 above 10%. Four – Kedah, Kelantan, Sabah, and Selangor – are above 15%.
She said the high positivity rate shows that the country is “severely under-testing” the population, and daily positive case numbers, although high, are still under-reported.
According to Yeo, Malaysia’s contact tracing mechanism is almost “fully manual” while other countries, which have been successful in controlling the spread of the virus, are using much better and sophisticated data analytics to allow for more comprehensive tracing of close contacts.
She said that the increase in sporadic cases – from 50%-60% of the total cases at the beginning of this year to 90% now – clearly shows that the current testing and tracing system is “totally incapable” of tracing the pattern of the spread of the virus.
Last week, Dr Jemilah Mahmood said the FTTIS strategy was the country’s weakest link in its pandemic management strategy.
Jemilah, who was special adviser on public health to former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, said a national testing strategy will be needed to stave off small outbreaks as states begin to reopen their economies.
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