PUTRAJAYA urgently needs to come up with a “National Covid-19 testing strategy and policy” to curb the virus outbreak in the country, Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad said.

The former health minister told The Malaysian Insight the strategy was suggested to former prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin by his health adviser, Dr Jemilah Mahmood, but it was ignored.

Dzulkefly said Muhyiddin was relying only on the vaccination programme to contain the outbreak and achieve herd immunity.

“The Perikatan Nasional (PN) government did not get it right in the first place and was seemingly relying on the vaccination roll-out to achieve herd immunity, which may not come after all, given the Delta and Lambda variants,” he said.

Dzulkefly, who is chairman for the Selangor task force for Covid-19, said Malaysia’s weakest link in its pandemic management is the absence of a find, test, trace, isolate and support (FTTIS) strategy.

He said timely diagnostic testing and proper management is an essential tool in preventing and controlling the spread of the virus, adding it could even bring down the number of cases in some states that are now recording high numbers.

He even said this would be helpful in preventing small outbreaks as states begin to reopen their borders and economies.

Dzulkefly said Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob now must urgently implement this policy to properly manage the risk of future outbreaks, he said.

“The prime minister has to do it right!

“What the prime minister needs to do urgently is implement a national Covid-19 testing strategy and policy, categorically spelt out.

“We need a robust FTTIS approach because the weakest link in Malaysia’s pandemic management strategy is still testing and contact tracing.

“This is meant to reduce the raging numbers in many states besides Selangor, like Kedah, Sabah, Johor, Penang and Kelantan.

“Besides, it is aimed at managing the risk of future small outbreaks as states and the economy open up,” he said.

Dzulkefly said hospitals will be overwhelmed if the government fails to implement FTTIS and said the strategy is the best possible way to contain the spread of the virus.

“Our hospitals will be overwhelmed when we fail on the front-end of testing and contact tracing, as the chain of transmission is not broken. You are witnessing it now again in many states.

“As much as the backend frontliners – especially those in the ICU, intensivists and anaesthesiologists – are gallantly fighting to save lives, their efforts will not end the pandemic,” he said.

Dzulkefly said although the critical factors to successfully break the chain of infection would be FTTIS and vaccination, he urged the people not to get complacent with the standard operating procedure (SOP) when freedom is given, especially to those who are fully vaccinated.

“FTTIS and vaccination are the truly critical success factors. And I hasten to add the critical role of the rakyat to comply with SOP, especially since we are opening up now.

“We must have a ‘safe opening’ and it should never be done in haste if we truly want to enjoy our freedom,” Dzulkefly added. – September 2, 2021.