THE Health Ministry is ready to empower private general practitioners (GPs) to function as Covid-19 Assessment Centres (CAC) with the authority to issue home surveillance orders to positive but mild cases of Covid-19, Health Minister Dr Adham Baba said.

He said GPs must first come forward to register themselves with the ministry.

“We have agreed for GPs to help with Covid-19 screening and to be CACs. They can issue home surveillance orders. We will give this authority to GPs. We ask them to register with the ministry in order to do this,” he told a press conference for selected media that was broadcast on Facebook.

CACs were first established early this year by the ministry at district level nationwide to manage home-based treatment of Covid-19 patients with mild infections. There are more than 200 CACs nationwide.

The policy switch to home-based treatment and quarantine was made as part of measures to ease pressure on hospitals.

Now, as Covid-19 cases exceed 7,000 daily and with the increase of sporadic cases (cases not linked to clusters), Adham said roping in GPs to function as CACs would help the government in efforts to contain the virus spread while reducing the burden on public healthcare facilities.

Other measures in the pipeline include approval for self-testing Covid-19 kits using saliva and RTK-Antigen home kits people can use by themselves. They are to report a positive result to their nearest district health clinic and in the MySejahtera app.

“These kits can be used at home, or the workplace or at pharmacies. You don’t have to go to a centre to get tested. If you are positive, you can immediately isolate yourself at home away from the rest of your family members.”

Adham said the ministry was looking at rolling out these home test kits through pharmacies and employers.

“These self-test kits are in the process of being approved and we will announce when it is ready.” – May 27, 2021.