LABUAN – News on two possible Mu and Lambda Covid-19 variant cases here last Tuesday may have been exaggerated and heavily sensationalised, said the Labuan Economic Sector Coalition (LESC).
In a statement today, the coalition said news of the suspected Covid-19 variants published by Bernama had been widely circulated on social media, causing the society here to blame the shipping industry as the cases were detected among crewmen.
“Blame was unnecessarily hurled towards the economic sector, particularly the shipping industry, since the reporting was not done in detail.
“LESC is puzzled by the reporting of the news media. Based on internal reports, we learned that the two cases of concern recorded cycle thresholds (CTs) of 28 and 32, and the readings were post-infectious.
“Chinese newspaper reports today also reported that Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah had responded that the cases are not Mu or Lambda variants.
“Thus we feel that the fears expressed and the way it was reported and spun by the media was extremely exaggerated and irresponsible,” the coalition stated.
Last Thursday, Bernama had reported that two new Type A Covid-19 import cases detected here on Tuesday are being analysed to detect presence of the Mu and Lambda strains.
The national news agency had quoted Labuan Health Director Dr Ismuni Bohari as saying that the two cases involved the crew of a ship whose last port of call was at a country where the Mu and Lambda variants had been detected.
“One of the cases is feared to trigger high infections; we have no choice but to send the samples for analysis to the Peninsula.
“The cases were detected (on September 6) as mandatory rapid test-polymerase chain reactions (RT-PCR) tests are enforced on ship crews entering Labuan... These were the first imported Type A cases detected after the Delta variant attacked Labuan and led to a sudden surge in cases and daily deaths,” Dr Ismuni was quoted saying.
Dr Ismuni also disclosed there had been five new import cases involving foreign crewmen detected on Wednesday, and some of them will also be sent for analysis.
LESC said while it recognises the effort towards public awareness on Covid-19, it is asking for professionalism and responsibility from the Labuan Health Department as well as the media.
“We encourage them to change their ways and narrative, to impart positive reinforcement rather than continued back-to-back fear-mongering, particularly if it involves news that has not yet been verified.”
LESC said that the people of Labuan should be realistic and expect that there will be more Covid-19 cases detected involving shipping crew, as Labuan is the only port that is implementing mandatory RT-PCR test on all shipping and vessel crews.
It also questioned the illogical implementation of such a standard operating procedure (SOP) only at Labuan port, but not at other ports in states that have yet to achieve herd immunity.
“This illogical decision to have discriminating SOP for the Labuan community would surely detect Covid-19 cases since it is implemented in Labuan only, especially when Labuan is not even a national loading centre in Malaysia and our vessel call is too insignificant compared wtih other ports,” they said.
On another note, LESC said that the exemption of Labuan on Annex 9 (guidelines for entry point of screening of travellers during movement control order) is past its due date since Labuan has achieved herd immunity.
“We would like to urge the government to now include Labuan under Annex 9 to ensure seamless coordination and planning as Malaysia is anticipating Covid-19 entering the endemic stage in the near future.” – The Vibes, September 11, 2021
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