THE Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) urges the government to delay the relaxing of restrictions for the fully vaccinated until cases are significantly reduced. Any decision to relax restrictions must be supported with sufficient scientific evidence.
If it is indeed a decision based on science, why then is travel allowed for those wishing to see their spouse or their young children? Either it’s sufficiently safe for the fully vaccinated to travel, in which case all vaccinated individuals should be allowed to do so, or it is not, in which case nobody should travel.
Similarly, the states where the fully vaccinated are allowed these freedoms should be based on science. Some of those states in Phase 2 are showing an increasing trend in cases of Covid-19. By next week, they may be in Phase 1.
The government should stop its hyping up on the total number of cases. What is important are bed occupancies and the state of intensive care units (ICUs) in the country. We will not get to zero on Covid-19 cases any time soon. However, with the increasing rate of vaccinations, serious cases may soon be trending down by month-end.
Going forward, we hope that the government will provide an update on the positivity rate and the status of bed utilisation and ICUs in each state as these will be more meaningful indicators apart from the daily cases. It is important that the public be kept informed of the bed capacity and ICU status in the respective states.
We also hope there will be an update on the vaccination status of all those in the high-risk category under Phase 2 of the National Covid-19 Immunisation Programme.
Any lifting of restrictions must also take into account high-risk groups such as nursing homes, factory and construction workers, security guards, cleaners, medical students and undocumented people and migrant workers that have not been vaccinated.
Prof Datuk Dr. Subramaniam Muniandy is president of the Malaysian Medical Association
