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PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has criticized policy changes for Covid-19 testing of the workforce before companies resume operations under the Conditional Movement Control (MCO) order.
MMA President Dr. N. Ganabaskaran said the lack of clear guidelines on workforce testing “has left business owners, employees and even general practitioners in the country confused and frustrated.”
He said in a statement Sunday (May 10) that the clinics have been receiving calls from employers to organize the Covid-19 evaluation for their employees, but were unable to conduct the evaluation without the necessary guidelines, as the Insurance Organization Social (Socso) also discontinued use. of Rapid Test Kits (RTK) for Mandatory Worker Detection for Covid-19.
He Socso had previously announced that he would use RTK antibody testing for workers through general medicine clinics on his panel.
“However, we have now been informed that under the Socso detection program, only the reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) method will be used.”
“The public should be aware that test results using this method generally take 24 hours to obtain, and depending on the volume of test samples and other logistics, it may take longer,” said Dr. Ganabaskaran, noting that the RT-PCR test results received after three days would have no clinical value.
MMA noted that results must be received 48 to 72 hours after the test or the results may not reflect the current state of health of the examinee.
“Currently, the nationwide testing capacity in the private sector is around 9,000 per day. It should also be noted that the laboratories that test these samples also test non-Covid-19 cases,” he added.
Dr. Ganabaskaran said that MMA had advised general practitioners not to perform RTK antibody tests without clear guidelines from the Ministry of Health.
He added that there was more confusion when the Ministry of International Trade and Industry recently announced that the companies could resume business operations starting May 4 without a letter of approval from Miti and Covid-19 is not required.
“Stakeholders are confused now why evaluations were needed in the beginning and are no longer needed now. (They feel) insecure knowing that the Covid-19 threat still exists,” he said.
He added that the MMA also asked the government to be clear in the selection of foreign workers, in terms of which sectors and health departments will be involved.
“We want to appeal to the government for more clarity and proper guidelines for the smooth implementation of standard operating procedures (SOPs), as many are in the dark about next steps to take.
“We believe that this confusion regarding worker testing would not have occurred if the announcement to test workers was made after receiving guidelines from the Ministry of Health,” he said.
MMA also warned the public that Covid-19 testing is a mere precautionary measure and not a guarantee against Covid-19 infection.
“Test results that are ‘negative’ should in no way give the impression that the tested person is protected against Covid-19 infection,” said Dr. Ganabaskaran, adding that people could still be infected even after the previous negative test.
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