KUALA LUMPUR, Aug 7 ― Damansara MP Tony Pua has called for the Ministry of Health (MoH) to drastically ramp up targeted Covid-19 testing and put in place a National Testing Plan amid the current spike of Covid-19 cases in the country.
He said that a severe shortage of tests has contributed to the increased number of undetected cases in the community, with the absence of measures such as close contact tracing and mandatory isolation not being enforced further increasing the number of cases.
“It is true that the Health Ministry has since increased the number of test samples to above 140,000 samples a day in the last 2 weeks. However, the positivity rate has already spiked even faster to more than 13 per cent this week. This is more than double the World Health Organisation (WHO) recommended threshold of 5 per cent.
“They must be committed to large scale implementation of the Find, Test, Trace, Isolate and Support (FTTIS) methodology to contain the virus, as proposed in the National Recovery Plan,” he said in a statement.
He said the consequence of not applying a nationwide testing plan would lead to an overstretched healthcare service, where beds, equipment and facilities would be insufficient to cope.
He then refubbed Deputy Health director-general Datuk Dr Chong Chee Kheong statement yesterday, where he said that the major surge of Covid-19 cases in the country is due to the relaxation of the movement control order 3.0 (MCO 3.0), the easing of the economic sector and the emergence of the Delta variant.
He said that according to data from MoH, it clearly shows that the positivity rate had been rising almost continuously since May 24, the first week of the MCO 3.0, and not in the last month.
“Instead, from the data provided by the Health Ministry, the most obvious reason why the number of Covid-19 cases and the positivity rate has been rising persistently is because it has failed to carry out sufficient tests, proportionate to the positivity data from the test samples.
“It is clear that despite the positivity rate being well above 6.5 per cent for the first few weeks of MCO, the drastic decline in testing carried out has contributed significantly to subsequent drastic rise in Covid-19 cases.
“The average daily test samples taken dropped by 34 per cent from 109,601 cases in the first week of MCO to only 72,308 cases in the fifth week,” he said.
He added that the mass testing plan should not be for the Health Ministry to execute alone, but should include all stakeholders including private hospitals, private clinics, factories, workplaces and individuals self testing at home.
“We must build a national capacity to test at least 1 per cent, that is approximately 300,000 tests a day as a contingency to deal with any further outbreaks in the future,” he said.
