MALAYSIA’S current targeted Covid-19 mass testing is returning high positive results as the virus is already present in the community but has gone undetected until now, said health experts.

They told The Malaysian Insight that it is obvious that increased testing in areas under the enhanced movement-control order (EMCO) will show a spike in Covid-19 cases, otherwise their areas will not be in such strict lockdown.

Selangor Task Force for Covid-19 chairman Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad used the analogy of an ant colony to describe the country’s Covid-19 situation, saying the authorities will not get ahead of the pandemic unless they take a closer look at community infections.

“If you find an ant colony, there may be a few crawling, but if you open it (the ant hill), you may find more ants that are always there but are unseen,” Dzulkefly told The Malaysian Insight.

“Yes, they are right (testing is returning more positive results), but after testing, if we don’t trace, isolate, support and vaccinate, we will continue to fail.”

Malaysia has reported more than 9,000 daily infections for three days straight until the figure dropped to 8,574 new infections yesterday – reflecting lower testing numbers over the weekend.

Director-general health Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah and Deputy Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob attributed the surge in the number of cases to large-scale testing in areas under EMCO.

At present, 36 sub-districts in Selangor and 16 localities in Kuala Lumpur have been placed under EMCO for two weeks until July 16.

Dzulkefly, who is former health minister, also said automated contact tracing is the only way Malaysia can reduce infection numbers.

“Isolate them fast. You don’t nee to confirm with RT-Ag or RT-PCR tests where one will have to wait for days sometimes to get a phone call from officers from the health department,” he said.

“Then wait again for a few days for results, then wait for a few days to be told to go to Covid-19 assessment centres, get the pink band and triaged, then sent to the Malaysia Agro Exposition Park Serdang quarantine centre or home quarantine.

“All these processes are ‘rate-limiting steps’ and are slow.”

He said it will take Malaysia one month or two infectious periods (four weeks) before the number of infections can be reduced significantly.

Malaysian Public Health Physicians’ Association president Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar also attributed the surge in cases to existing cases in the community and workplaces.

“The cases are there in the community and workplaces. Increased testing in those places will definitely increase the numbers,” he said.

“If no test is done, the cases will still be there undetected.”

There are currently 865 active clusters in the country, a majority of which are from factories and construction sites. Selected factories in EMCO areas are still allowed to operate.

Virologist Dr Chee Hui Yee of Universiti Putra Malaysia’s Medicine and Health Sciences Faculty agreed with Zainal and predicted that Malaysia will see up to 10,000 cases a day before it plateaus.

“One of the reasons is because there is also increased community infection, but mass testing does contribute to the spike of the cases,” she said.

“Cases will be between 8,000 and 10,000 for this week and will later plateau.

“But this also depends on the testing capacity and number of backlog samples. We may start seeing reduction in two to four weeks.”

Despite the EMCO, the Klang Valley continues to contribute the bulk of cases in the country.

Of the 8,574 new infections yesterday, 4,308 came from Selangor, 609 from Kuala Lumpur and 45 from Putrajaya.

According to data from the Health Ministry, as of June 21, of the 578,105 Covid-19 cases reported, 398,846 or 69% have been linked to sporadic infections, meaning they are not tied to any cluster.

The emergence of fresh cases has also put additional pressure on an already overburdened health care system. Hospitals are running out of beds and have resorted to converting car parks into field hospitals.

Close to 1,000 patients nationwide are currently being treated in intensive care units while more than 400 are on respiratory support. – July 13, 2021.