KUCHING, May 31: Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii is urging the Sarawak government to ramp up region-wide Covid-19 testing and vaccination rates during the current Movement Control Order (MCO) and make it the last one ever.
He said the two-week lockdown period must be fully utilised to ensure the MCO achieves its intended target of curbing the virus while the economy is able to be revived to some normalcy after the lockdown.
Emphasising that lockdowns are only temporary cures but not permanent solutions to the pandemic, he said there would be another spike in Covid-19 cases if the underlying problems of virus spread are not addressed during this time.
“Currently, we are severely under-testing in Sarawak. The average positive rate from May 16 to 22 was 14.5 per cent and 11.9 per cent from May 25 to 30, which was more than double the advisory rate by the World Health Organisation (WHO) that is supposedly below five per cent.
“That is why, I propose for the State government to hold free mass testing for each constituency in collaboration with local Member of Parliaments (MPs) and assemblymen (ADUNs) to complement the current testing to detect individuals who may be silent carriers of Covid-19,” he said in a statement today.
The second important thing that the Sarawak government should be expediting during MCO, he added, is the vaccination rate in Sarawak when the current rate from May 23 to 29 was only at 6,490 doses daily.
Dr Yii said more improvements especially to the appointment system under MySejahtera must be looked into to prevent any glitches in arrangements when Sarawak increases the number of vaccines inoculated daily by June.
He also suggested the set ups of small and medium vaccination centres (PPVs) in different zones for each constituency rather than large scale PPVs, and the involvement of more private hospitals and general practitioners (GPs) in administering the vaccines to the public.
“They (Saraawak government) must also create more mobile vaccination teams not just in the rural areas, but also in the urban areas to reach out to the elderly, bedridden, OKU (people with special needs) and even those that may not have registered yet.
“So, instead of expecting them to come, we should bring the vaccines to them,” he said. in a statement today.
To carry out such large-scale testing and vaccination drive, he viewed the State government should look into hiring more non-medical part-time workers or volunteers from industries and sectors badly affected by the pandemic in which at the same time create job opportunities to those unemployed. — DayakDaily
