Dzulkelfy: Continue COVID-19 mass testing, be firm on policies

HEALTH Ministry and the Selangor state government must continue with its pro-active and aggressive testing for COVID-19, particularly on migrant workers.

In a series of tweets, former health minister Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad also urged authorities and the public to stop using the daily COVID-19 updates as a scoreboard to measure success and failures.

“Disheartening? Yes. Give up? No! The Selangor Task Force for COVID-19 (STFC) has always said, stop presenting numbers of daily cases like a scoreboard– with cheers & jeers!

“We have always urged to do more testing,” he said.

Dzulkefly said this as COVID-19 cases in Selangor has been rising in the last few days, from 277 (Wed) to 845 (Thur), before dipping slightly to 829 yesterday.

The state now accounts to almost half the national cases recorded daily due to discoveries of new clusters in the state.

Dzulkefly, who also heads the STFC, said the numbers may rise in days to come but urged the public not to get disheartened and continue to adhere to strict standard operating procedures (SOP) to stem the rise of COVID-19 cases.

“Correct policies may be unpopular. Don’t expect to be praised. That will kill us,” he said.

He then proposed several measures to counter the rise of COVID-19 cases, such as aggressive testing on community at risk and those exposed to spillover from identified clusters.

“Actively find sporadic cases, missed unlinked to original clusters.

“Isolate cases-in-community earlier and cut transmission faster. Please leverage on technology to expedite, streamline and monitor community testing efficiency,” the Kuala Selangor MP added. – Dec 12, 2020

Subscribe and get top news delivered to your Inbox everyday for FREE