A SELANGOR state assemblyman urged the Health Ministry (MOH) to get its COVID-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) right as many are confused, especially on quarantine procedures once tested positive for the virus.
“Last month, the MOH announced the setting up of 213 COVID-19 Assessment Centres (CAC) to help patients undergoing home treatment.
“This reactive measure was taken after the record-breaking increase in reported infection cases and the inability of existing COVID-19 quarantine centres to cope with the sheer volume.
“However, in all their messaging, the only we know is that the CAC is meant to identify, evaluate, monitor and manage patients who have been certified positive for COVID-19 but it fails to address many other pertinent issues,” said Rajiv Rishyakaran, in a statement.
Pointing out certain irregularities, Rajiv said the SOP fails to mention on who qualifies as “certified positive patients”, without explaining whether they accept both PCR and RTK-Antigen tests.
“And what does MOH do once someone is tested positive for COVID-19? Is declaring their details on the MySejahtera app alone is sufficient or must they go to the CAC?” he asked.
Relating an incident, Rajiv said one of his constituents had a harrowing experience with the local CAC and district health department (PKD) after testing positive for COVID-19.
“After testing positive using RTK-Antigen testing on Feb 1, followed by a PCR test on Feb 8 (also positive), the 42-year-old man self-quarantined to avoid infecting the rest of his family as they had tested negative at the time.
“On Feb 11, (10 days after his RTK-Antigen positive results), he had gone to the CAC for a release letter but was told that they do not accept RTK-Antigen results, and counted the 10 days quarantine from when the PCR test was done.
“This extended his quarantine by another seven days – which made his quarantine period to 17 days,” said the Bukit Gasing state assemblyman.
Rajiv said the man’s action to self-quarantine was in line with the Government’s call, on top of declaring his COVID-19 positive status on the MySejahtera app.
“To his understanding, as well as others in the medical practice that I have checked with, he was compliant to that latest announcement. He also verified with the facility where he did his initial RTK Antigen test that they have uploaded his results to the app, as required by the MOH,” he stressed.
Why can’t MOH accept RTK-Antigen test results?
With that said, Rajiv urged the MOH to answer several pertinent questions, such as on why it was not accepting RTK-Antigen test results.
If it was so, he urged the MOH should mention it to the public and inform them on how soon those tested positive using the RTK-Antigen kits would be retested via the PCR kit at the public health facility.
“With the spikes in cases and labs having backlogs in processing PCR tests, how feasible is it that a COVID-19 positive patient has to wait for a PCR test? Plus, getting a PCR test done in a private lab or hospital can cost up to RM300 or more,” he said.
On that note, Rajiv urged the MOH to come up with regulations on what a person should do after testing positive, with either RTK-Antigen or PCR test kits, apart from declaring it on the MySejahtera app.
“Is it compulsory for the person to report themselves to the CAC? Clearly waiting for someone from PKD to give them a call is not a working as many COVID-19 positive patients are not identified, yet alone contacted even after being tested positive.
“Some were only contacted after their quarantine period has ended,” Rajiv remarked. – Feb 16, 2021.
