PUTRAJAYA’S national recovery plan lacks a clear strategy to flatten the Covid-19 curve and to keep the number of infections down, said the Malaysian Medical Association (MMA).

Prof Dr Subramaniam Muniandy, the president of the association, said it needs a secure and sustainable recovery plan to reopen the economy without another threat of movement-control order.

“In its recovery plan, there are targets to reduce daily cases to below 4,000, 2,000 and 500 but no mention is made of a targeted positivity rate.

“Daily cases reducing to below 4,000 or 2,000 would bear little significance if the positivity rate is high or above 5%. There should be targets set to test the community especially in hotspot areas nationwide,” Subramaniam said in a statement.

According to the health ministry’s Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre, Malaysia’s positivity rate has ranged from 5.67% to 7.89% this month, above the 5% benchmark set by the World Health Organisation (WHO).

Subramaniam said while vaccination was a top priority, community screening and an improved standard operating procedure (SOP) were equally important, especially with the increase in sporadic cases.

“We are seeing a rise in sporadic cases now and this is an indication that the infection is widespread in the community, hence increased testing is needed to find and quickly isolate.

“The government should learn from past mistakes of lifting restrictions and opening sectors too early without sufficient screening for Covid-19 prevalence,” he said.

He said government also failed to address vaccinating those in the manufacturing, construction, services, retail sectors as well as undocumented migrant workers.

No timeline was also set to rope in the 5,000 private general practitioners to double up the current vaccination rate.

“Now that supply has improved, vaccination centres should be expanded to as many private clinics nationwide as possible to make getting vaccinations more convenient and accessible for the rakyat.”

He added that the government also failed to define what it meant by “recovery phase” and when it would take place. “Healthcare workers too need to know when it will finally be a ‘recovery phase’ for them. Another surge after three MCOs and two lockdowns can no longer be acceptable. They need a well-deserved break.”

On Tuesday, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin announced the national recovery plan to steer the country out of the Covid-19 pandemic. The plan is divided into four phases with the current lockdown being the first phase.

Phase two will be implemented when cases fall below 4,000 and 10% of the population has been vaccinated. Phase three will be implemented when numbers fall below 2,000 a day and 40% have been vaccinated, while phase four will take place when cases fall below 500 daily and 60% have received both doses of the vaccine.

Phase three is expected to begin in September or October, while phase four in November. – June 17, 2021.