KUALA LUMPUR – The backlog of Covid-19 reports is due to an overwhelmed health system, said Dr Arvinder-Singh H.S., as Malaysia’s daily case figures have soared beyond the 5,000 mark over the past three days.
He said that public health workers are swamped by too many manual duties, including carrying out contact tracing, which could sometimes be in the hundreds for every infected individual.
“Due to this, the reports of daily cases are not done in real time because the cases reported to the (Health Ministry’s) CPRC (Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre) is due to the arrears of work,” he said in a Twitter thread.
He added that the workforce needs to be beefed up immediately at the district health offices (PKDs) and other public health levels to help the system cope with the rising numbers.
Dr Arvinder said when a Covid-19 test sample is sent to a lab, the lab needs to report the results, whether positive or negative, to the Public Health Laboratory Information System (Simka).
“If one is positive, the result will be given to a doctor who will inform the nearest PKD, which will then verify the report and confirm the case before it is reported to the CPRC.
“Although this flow chart is easily understood, it is much more complicated than we imagine. Try to think of tests being done in the thousands and doctors reporting cases to the PKDs in the hundreds. This does not take into account the other tasks of the PKDs, such as contact tracing.
“With cases rising daily (especially in large and dense populations like Selangor), the backlog of cases will increase every day. This has caused the nation’s data according to states (separately) to be inconsistent.”
He said, however, that the data entry of the backlog has been ramped up with the temporary help of the PKDs, causing the daily cases in the ministry’s daily updates to soar.
“Even though we have received an explanation from the Health Ministry, this is a sign that the system needs assistance in terms of technology and artificial intelligence to help report cases to the PKDs and for contact tracing.
“We have identified the problems that have struck the system and we need to shift our focus in addressing the matter to prevent it from recurring in the future.”
Dr Arvinder added people need to understand that the main cause for the rising numbers is backlogged cases.
“The people still need to abide by SOPs (standard operating procedures) and take precautionary measures such as wearing (face) masks, washing hands, and social distancing, which will help the country curb the spread (of Covid-19) and prevent a spike in cases.
“Compliance with the SOPs is important and I urge Malaysians to continue taking precautionary measures. We have yet to win and we need the support of all parties to end the outbreak, including the option to get inoculation when vaccines become available soon.” – The Vibes, February 1, 2021
