KUCHING, Aug 23: Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii has called for the authorities to decentralise the current one-stop Covid-19 Centre at MBKS Community Hall and open up more swabbing centres and Covid-19 Assessment Centres (CAC) all around Kuching to ease the congestion and long queues.
He said due to the surge in cases especially in Kuching, naturally there will be more people who need to get swabbed and tested due to close contact and that will cause congestion and long waits at the said area.
He also said there are, of course, concerns that such an area would increase risk of possible outbreak due to congestion especially if standard operating procedures (SOPs) are poorly adhered to.
“I strongly believe as the need to test more increases, we will also need to increase the number of swabbing centres all around Kuching to spread out the crowd and congestion. This will reduce the waiting time and more importantly reduce risk of possible outbreak,” he said in a statement today.
He also suggested the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) report testing numbers by district especially for Kuching to get a clearer picture of positive rate by district and sub-district.
He also called for the incorporation of RTK Ag into screening process to reduce reliance on Rt-PCR which takes a longer time and much more lab-resources.
“Since majority of those coming in are asymptomatic, Saliva RTK Ag can be used to do quick screening and quick isolation whether in low-risk quarantine centres (PKRC) or even proper home quarantine for those that are able to home quarantine.
“They then can be monitored for symptoms and disease progression virtually by roping in the General Practitioners (GPs) even from the private sector.
“For those who are unable to isolate in their homes, better quarantine facilities should be made available by the relevant agencies to prevent the spread and spillover of the infection into the larger community,” he elaborated.
In order to deal with the surge in breakthrough cases, Dr Yii asserted that there has to be clear combination of RTK Antigen tests for rapid screening and Rt-PCR, and this helps with streamlining of manpower.
He also claimed that the slow, piecemeal and reactive responses of the authorities in their testing protocols had only fostered the sporadic spread of the virus and enhanced the proliferation of the variants of concern especially the Delta variant, which then led to an explosion of new daily cases of Covid-19.
Dr Yii further advised both the federal and State governments to bulk purchase and subsidise the saliva self-test kits to make it affordable and ensure enough supplies in the market.
At the same time, Dr Yii has contributed a portable loud speaker and two hailers to the one-stop Covid-19 Centre at MBKS Community Hall recently to help with the crowd control. — DayakDaily
