KOTA KINABALU: The Federation of Chinese Associations Sabah (FCAS) has urged the Federal government to quickly ramp up vaccine supply, medical equipment and manpower for Sabah, in order to better address the worsening Covid-19 situation in the state.
Its President, Tan Sri T.C Goh said with Sabah being declared the state with second highest number of Covid-19 cases in the country, the Federal government ought to provide sufficient vaccine supply to the state. This is to ensure that the state could continue to carry out the ongoing national immunization programme through various approaches, walk-in included, without interruptions.
He noted that there has been a drastic spike in the number of Covid-19 cases in the state for the past two days with 3,376 cases and 3,224 cases recorded, and it warrants a serious attention of both the Federal and state governments and the relevant authorities.
He thus called on the Federal government to provide more medical equipment and manpower to enhance contact tracing and quarantine measures, especially to ensure that those who are undergoing ‘home quarantine’ strictly comply with the standard operating procedures (SOPs), and to undergo RT-PCR test, after completing the 10-day quarantine period, before they return to work. This is to ensure that they are no longer infectious.
Goh who is also a member of the Sabah Economic Advisory Council (SEAC) and President of the Federation of Sabah and Labuan Hokkien Associations (FSLHA) also urged the Ministry of Health (MoH) to seriously review whether the currently imposed 10-day quarantine period is good enough, or a longer quarantine period is necessary. This is especially appropriate following the detection of cases where, some Covid-19 patients despite having completed the 10-day quarantine period, PCR test conducted on them showed that they were still infectious.
He thus reiterated that it is necessary for the MoH to review the existing quarantine measures, especially those involving ‘home quarantine’.
“The relevant authority should ensure that there’s enough manpower to carry out disinfection at the home of the Cocid-19 patient, to better explain the quarantine measures to the patient and the family, and to closely monitor their progress and whereabouts,” he said.
He also claimed to have received complaints that, due to shortage of manpower in the State Health Department, it only managed to carry out disinfection at the home of Covid-19 patients, 20 days later. He expressed concern that such an extended delay may fail to prevent further spread of the virus.
Besides this, he also proposed the Federal government and state government to consider assigning some of the civil servants who are currently working from home, to the State Health Department so as to help ease ongoing manpower shortage. This is after providing necessary training to the selected civil servants.
He noted that, due to shortage of manpower, the State Health Department was compelled to allow those with minor Covid-19 symptoms to undergo quarantine at home. However, it may pose the risk of triggering the ‘home cluster’, if those undergoing home quarantine failed to strictly comply with the quarantine procedures.
“We do not wish to see our public healthcare system collapse under tremendous pressure which would certainly render the people helpless in such a dire situation,” he concluded.-pr/BNN
