GEORGE TOWN – State health authorities will have to investigate how Penang has hit a record high of 1,385 Covid-19 cases, almost double from 743 the day before.
In making the suggestion, state exco Jagdeep Singh Deo told The Vibes that the majority of the cases detected were not from the Penang Saring Covid-19 (PSC-19) initiative that has been running for the past three weeks.
“The high number of tests from PSC-19 did not contribute to the numbers at all. We have tested around 30,000 and the positive cases only made up around 2.7%.
“Though the 2.7% is still alarming, it is not as alarming as it would have been if we didn’t do the testing at all.
“Perhaps the one person identified during the screening could have spread it to more people and the numbers went up exponentially.
“The percentage of positive cases has been almost the same from the start of the PSC-19 initiative until today with 10 to 15 positive cases per day,” he said.
PSC-19, which has been ongoing for the last three weeks, has completed screenings at 30 locations.
Jagdeep said that out of all the positive cases identified from the initiative, approximately 1,100 who tested positive are locals, with only 82 being migrants.
“I can tell you that the majority of cases are certainly not migrants. The Health Ministry should tell us where the numbers are coming from,” he said.
The state government is presently looking at the possibility of providing free screening after the allotted 40,000 tests are completed.
In the meantime, Jagdeep is requesting for more vaccines to arrive sooner, so that more people can be vaccinated soon.
Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM) Penang chapter chairman Datuk Jimmy Ong said that the record number did not surprise him as the national Covid-19 cases have been topping 20,000 cases per day.
“Even when Kedah had been breaking the 1,000 mark each day for the last few weeks, MoH and the Penang government had already started to prepare for the worst to hit Penang.
“From MoH’s daily statistics, more than 98% of the cases are either asymptomatic or have mild symptoms, and it is getting very difficult to control the spread unless there is zero movement.
“However, if that happens, the people will suffer, the economy will collapse, and the impact will be catastrophic. Therefore, the only way is to live with it.
“Vaccination is also a very important step to bring down the serious cases, especially categories 4 and 5, which require intensive care unit beds,” he said.
FMM has advised all its members to obtain vaccination for their workers through the Public-Private Partnership Industry Immunisation Programme.
As such, Ong said he hopes that all of the industry’s workers will be vaccinated by October.
“We are also advising companies to continue screening the workers on a regular basis, every two weeks, as early detection and isolation is an important step before cases spread to form bigger clusters.
“The screen-and-isolate system has been practised by many multinational corporations, and is able to control the spread.
“We hope companies will adopt the system as the Covid-19 test kits are readily available. However, most of the factories need to continue to comply with strict standard operating procedures, even though some may have completed their vaccinations,” he added. – The Vibes, August 11, 2021
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