From Dr Tan Eng Bee
The nation is not out of the woods yet due to the escalating Omicron variant and people have been advised to be careful and to adhere to Covid-19 SOPs.
Despite the relaxation of rules for those inflicted with the virus and the number of days they need to be quarantined, the situation demands that we cannot be careless.
We must follow the SOPs and professional advice as to how we can be safe and live life in the new normal.
Among the advice given is using the RTK Covid-19 antigen saliva self-test (RTK-Ag) kits. These are to be used when one suspects symptoms indicating Covid-19. That’s the cheapest way one can test for the virus. The results can be known within minutes.
Since before the Chinese New Year season, Covid-19 figures have been rising and today we have nearly 30,000 new cases daily, with deaths exceeding more than 40 at the moment.
Therefore, more people are resorting to using these self-test kits. The Covid-19 virus keeps on mutating and only God knows when this pandemic will end.
I call upon the authorities to impose firm ceiling prices for Covid-19 antigen saliva test kits of all brands on sale.
The prices have skyrocketed to more than double the original price for some brands since Chinese New Year.
To compound the already tense situation, outlets seem to be hoarding these kits, with the intention to inflate the price to a new level.
Lies and deceit are used to cheat the public. We cannot allow these outlets to act dishonestly and unfairly to make huge profits by saying there are no available stocks when they are actually hoarding these test kits.
These unscrupulous outlets must be exposed and reprimanded as a strong deterrent to others not to resort to unethical business tactics to make excessive profits.
The health ministry, related ministries and enforcement authorities must check on pharmacies, malls and shops to ensure test kits are readily available at a reasonable price.
To make excessive or uncontrolled profits out of people’s misery and hardship is nothing more than greed and self-serving.
Such outlets must be censured and heavy fines imposed to deter excessive profit-making.
I hope the authorities will act with urgency to bring down the prices to a more reasonable and acceptable level.
In short, test kits ought to be classified as controlled items to deter price increases for no reason.
Dr Tan Eng Bee is an FMT reader.
The views expressed are those of the writer and do not necessarily reflect those of FMT.
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