GEORGE TOWN – The 28 Covid-19 deaths and infectivity rate of 1.14 in Penang as of Monday are causes for concern, as former chief minister Lim Guan Eng calls for mass screening and vaccinations.
Lim, who is DAP secretary-general, said the national vaccination rate dropped below the daily target of 500,000 doses to 396,578 on Monday.
“The (federal) government must explain why vaccinations dropped from a high of 531,114 doses on August 18 to less than 400,000 doses now.
“I am saddened by the record number of 28 deaths in Penang on August 23. The high Covid-19 basic reproduction number (R0 or R-naught) for Penang of 1.14 on August 23 compared with the national R0 figure of 1.01 is cause for concern.
“This high R0 number foreshadows the rise of new infections in Penang and will not go below 1,000 daily cases for the foreseeable future,” he said in a statement last night.
Apart from standard operating procedure compliance, mass screening tests and vaccinations are the only forms of protection available to vulnerable Malaysians, especially those who are unfit and unhealthy, he added.
“The mass screening exercise must be expanded to at least 1% of the population or 320,000 tests daily in Malaysia so that infections can be caught early, with isolation and treatment (to follow).
“The World Health Organisation recommends FTTIS+V (Find, Test, Trace, Isolate and Support + Vaccination) as one the preventive measures against mass outbreaks in the future. Herd immunity should be achieved solely through inoculation, not by both infection and inoculation.”
He added that Malaysia is still stuck in a cycle of community infection with the positivity rate of 14.96% on Monday, more than three times the recommended 5% by the WHO.
“Out of 118,158 tests done, the positivity rate of 14.96% indicates that there is not enough testing done to reduce the number of infections in accordance with WHO’s recommended large-scale implementation of the FTTIS+V.
“The positivity rate has risen progressively from 13.11% on August 17, 13.34% on August 18, 14.06% on August 19, 14.5% on August 20 and 14.81% on August 21.”
Penang hit a record high of 2,054 new Covid-19 cases yesterday. – The Vibes, August 25, 2021
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