PUTRAJAYA has lost control of Covid-19 and the only way out of this is through better coordination between all agencies to take the fight against the pandemic to the next level, said a former health minister, experts and civil society groups.

They told The Malaysian Insight there is a lack of coordination among agencies and the government should look at certain approaches holistically to avoid unwanted criticism.

The Health Ministry revealed recently there is a delay reporting Covid-19 cases to the Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre (CPRC), which resulted in the upsurge in cases. Some of the backlog go back to last year.

It also blames the online reporting system used by private healthcare facilities for the delays.

Former deputy health minister Dr Lee Boon Chye said it should not take anything more than 48 hours for the process of reporting cases to be completed, right from the diagnosis to the data being reflected in the database.

“If it takes a month, something is grossly wrong,” he told The Malaysian Insight.

“This is unbelievable in this day and age of ICT (information and communications technology).”

Explaining the process, Lee said the doctor in charge will have to inform the district health office within 24 hours upon the detection of a positive case.

The office will then do the due diligence, including investigating the index case, sanitisation and contact tracing.

The patient’s data will then be transferred to the CPRC, which then compiles the data before it is announced by director-general of health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah in the daily updates.

“It is unlikely that the district health office did not do the necessary measures like quarantine and contact tracing.

“It is more likely that some data backlog happened because the district health office did not forward the data in time to CPRC due to shortage of manpower,” said Lee.

“If the delay is because of the lab and doctors who ordered the test, it is even more serious because the delay would have caused further transmission and outbreaks of infection.”

In this case, action must be taken against the doctor or laboratory which withheld the results, he said.

Simplify SOP

The Perikatan Nasional government appears to have lost control of the situation, Lee said, adding that it has to be more transparent to earn the trust of the people.

“The government must not allow MoH to fight the pandemic alone. All ministries should assist in controlling the Covid-19 pandemic,” the Gopeng MP said.

“Most of the ministers are in MCO mode – hardly seen and hardly contributing anything fighting the pandemic.”

All contacts must be traced, tested and isolated within 48 hours and if there was a manpower crunch, the ministry can rope in new staff, including fresh graduates and newly jobless, he said.

There also has to be a national network among government agencies, civil society groups and community leaders. Information on location of the outbreak should be made transparent.

An enhanced movement-control order should be imposed in localities with uncontrollable outbreaks for a period of one week while the standard operating procedure (SOP) should be consistent and simplified, said Lee.

Sevan Doraisamy from Suara Rakyat Malaysia (Suaram) said the government has yet to show genuine transparency and is practising double standards when fining individuals who violated the SOP.

“The problem is now, there are too many questions and very little answers. For me, it is the lack of coordination and it is the responsibility of the government to overcome this problem.

“Although the data of Covid-19 patients are confidential, it should not be an excuse for the government to not feed the people important information. We also see how there is a clear practice of double standards. Ordinary people are fined for violating (the) SOP but not ministers.

“These are among the reasons why the public has lost confidence in the government. The government only wants to hold on to power rather than fighting Covid-19,” said the Suaram executive director.

Add experts

Sevan also urged the government to include economists, the opposition and civil society groups in their daily discussions on the pandemic.

Without proper debate on the pandemic, the government would keep repeating mistakes and back-pedalling on decisions.

“There is no thorough discussion and debate on how to overcome the problem. For example, the government initially allowed restaurants to operate until 8pm but after a backlash from the public, they allowed them to open till 10pm.

“Now they are saying they will study the need to allow car wash and pasar malam to operate. Why didn’t they think about this thoroughly in the first place? They have been back-pedalling since the first wave of the pandemic,” he added.

Professor Dr Ahmad Marthada Mohamed of Universiti Utara Malaysia agrees that there is a lack of coordination, saying that the government should look at certain approaches holistically to avoid unwanted criticism.

“All this confusion is making the people worried and is caused by the lack of coordination.

“The government needs to coordinate the flow of information from various agencies and must not only rely on the Health Ministry to do everything.

“This is the third wave of the pandemic and the Health Ministry has reached its maximum point. The burden must not be put on the ministry any longer.

“The government needs to study certain approaches carefully. For instance, the suggestion to increase fines for breaching SOP. They cannot look at one perspective. They need to ask themselves why people are violating SOP and how are we going to help the people who are clearly suffering physically and mentally from the pandemic.”

Putrajaya yesterday announced the extension of the movement-control order (MCO) with stricter conditions. This comes after the daily Covid-19 infections show no signs of abating.

As of yesterday, there were 226,912 Covid-19 infections reported in Malaysia with 809 fatalities. The number of active cases stands at 48,309. – February 4, 2021.