KUCHING, July 11: Bintulu MP Dato Sri Tiong King Sing has criticised Health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah pertaining to the latter’s disregard of asymptomatic patients in Malaysia’s daily Covid-19 count and for not properly isolating them.
With Malaysia recording its new high of 9,353 cases yesterday (July 10), Tiong stressed that this data did not include asymptomatic cases especially for states in Peninsular Malaysia due to the currently flawed testing procedure.
“Imagine these people carrying the Coronavirus without any symptoms and spreading it exponentially, hundreds of undetected infected persons roaming around.
“The real case data could be even scarier, and worse, close contacts have not been sent to quarantine. Even in the EMCO (Enhanced Movement Control Order) areas, there are no strict lockdowns coupled with mass testing.
“Only a handful of people have undergone the necessary tests. With such a lax control measure, how can we ever effectively suppress the pandemic?” he questioned in a statement today.
Tiong, who is also the Prime Minister’s Special Envoy to the People’s Republic of China, strongly urged for the implementation of large-scale testing to detect asymptomatic patients and isolate them in quarantine centres instead of sending them home.
He asserted that asymptomatic Covid-19 patients must not be allowed to be in close contact with their family members with the risk of transmitting the virus further.
“I call on the Ministry of Health (MoH) to immediately launch universal testing in (Covid-19) red zones with high caseloads. With more delay, the country’s losses will accelerate and many more lives will be needlessly sacrificed.
“Regardless of how severe the patients’ symptoms are, they should be admitted to a hospital of a Low-risk Treatment and Quarantine Centre (PKRC) depending on the severity,” he said.
If space must be made for less severe patients, he said, large spacious buildings such as school halls and community halls must be immediately converted into temporary PKRCs.
Tiong said Sarawak’s own prevention and control measures against Covid-19 have received their fair share of criticism too, but this is a matter of live and death and major proactive steps are required to contain the situation.
“The people are at their breaking point and running out of options. There must be something wrong. The strategy must be questioned especially the Health DG who bears the greatest responsibility,” he added. — DayakDaily
