DECEMBER 29 ― I strongly believe the government should take the current threat and surge of Covid-19 in China seriously and even look into the need to consider some form of travel requirements for those travelling from China to Malaysia as temporary emergency measure against the surging infections there.
This is important to better protect the people as well as prevent another crisis that may overwhelm our healthcare system.
We have seen how different countries including Japan, USA, Italy, South Korea, and India imposing certain form of requirements for travellers from China especially after the World Health Organisation (WHO) said it was very concerned about rising reports of severe cases across China after the country largely abandoned its “zero-Covid” policy.
I believe the Malaysian government should also consider some restrictions to prevent rapid increase of infections in this country, while balancing the economic need and livelihoods especially for essential travels.
This may be a requirement for travellers to be vaccinated (the types of vaccine accepted has to be decided) and do an Rt-PCR test at least two days before travelling. Upon arrival, we can carry out routine RTK-Ag testing and those who test positive will be quarantined for seven days at designated facilities and their samples will be used for genome analysis.
On a local, crisis preparedness must be heightened and healthcare facilities and human resource around the country must be empowered in case of any eventuality.
There must be clear data on ICU beds availability and Emergency Department contingency preparedness in case of a surge in cases.
The government must also further encourage the public to mask up especially indoors and highly congested areas. This is even so especially in view of the New Year celebration events that may cause a rise of cases locally. I am not in favour of a strict mask mandate where high fines are being imposed, but the government must effectively communicate the importance of masking and preparing the public for any eventuality.
The government should also encourage the public to optimise their protection against Covid-19 through the booster shots. While I understand there is currently low uptake among the public, but once they understand the urgency due to the situation in China, this may change and the government must be prepared. The government should also consider the purchase of the bi-valent vaccine as an option, which may deal with some hesitancy among people.
There also must be an audit on all antivirals medications such as paxlovid, remdesivir or evusheld for Covid-19 and allocate these medications to possible higher risk areas especially health facilities in point of entry or in high-risk outbreak areas.
The Ministry of Health can do a comprehensive modelling as well, to estimate how many patients may require these medications and make decisions on further procurements based on that data.
The Covid-19 Inter-Agency Taskforce must also be on standby for any eventuality in order to boost public health emergency preparedness, prevention, and response against current and ongoing health threats such as Covid-19.
While many of these are difficult but important decisions to be made especially in balancing the need to protect lives and livelihood and help spur the economy, but the government must be proactive and prepared for any eventuality.
All these measures must be communicated well and all efforts done must be transparent to build public confidence which is important in any public health crisis. We must learn from our experience and be proactive rather than only reactive when a crisis emerge.
* This is the personal opinion of the writer or publication and does not necessarily represent the views of Malay Mail.
