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PETALING JAYA: The Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) has highlighted the need for urgent improvements in the health ministry’s management of mild Covid-19 cases and close contacts.
In a statement today, MMA President Dr. Subramaniam Muniandy said this was necessary to eliminate confusion and prevent a possible violation of standard home quarantine operating procedures (SOPs), which can lead to a increase in community broadcasts.
“MMA once again urges the Ministry of Health to return to its previous policy of testing all close contacts. The current policy of the Ministry of Health is to test only symptomatic close contacts, ”he said.
“In your preventive measures, just isolating them will not be enough.
“The health status of all close contacts must be established early or there may be a risk of infections spreading among family members in the same home and in the community if they do not comply with quarantine,” he said.
Subramaniam added that close contact detection would also improve the management of patients showing early symptoms of Covid-19.
On January 12, Health Minister Dr. Adham Baba said that Covid-19 category 1 and 2 patients (those with no symptoms or mild symptoms) would undergo treatment and quarantine at home and would be monitored by health workers.
He said Ministry of Health staff would assess the size of the home and the number of occupants before allowing those patients to undergo treatment at home.
This came after Chief Health Officer Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah revealed that Covid-19 hospitals and low-risk treatment centers were near full capacity following the four-digit increase in daily cases since December.
In a Jan.13 letter to the directors of the state Department of Health, Noor Hisham said that the Health Ministry had instructed that all close contacts of positive Covid-19 cases be quarantined at home and would only assess to those with symptoms.
Subramaniam stressed that more awareness and clarity was needed on standard operating procedures for home quarantine, saying the government could not afford to take this issue lightly as cases were at an all-time high now.
He also called for greater efforts to educate the public about home quarantine SOPs and the Covid-19 Assessment Center (CAC) of the Ministry of Health by frequently publishing them in all available media, including outdoor media, especially in areas with high density. populated in simple Malay, English. , Mandarin and Tamil to ensure that all Malaysians understand it.
There are 213 CACs across the country to conduct evaluations of Covid-19 patients receiving treatment in their respective homes.
The MMA president pointed to several news reports in which confirmed Covid-19 cases had to wait days for a call from their district health office or had difficulty communicating with them.
Although SOPs for home quarantine can be accessed through the MySejahtera app and through the official health ministry website, Subramaniam said the public might not be aware of this or simply feel the need to speak with a representative of the Ministry of Health.
“We must hope that those who have just been diagnosed with Covid-19 may become overwhelmed by anxiety and will desperately try to contact the department in charge for assistance and guidance on the next steps to take,” he said.
“It must also be assumed that there will be older citizens who would use the telephone to call. Therefore, every call must be dealt with urgently.
“Similarly, many may be in the dark about SOPs. We fear that not everyone will be so responsible for taking home quarantine seriously.
“We therefore urge the government to urgently address these issues and make necessary improvements or we could see Covid-19 cases increase in the near future.”
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