Malaysia in Covid-19 crisis? — Musa Mohd Nordin

‘We are plagued with the Double Whammy. MCO + EO. A poorly managed Pandemic in bed with a poorly managed Politics. Pandemic + Politics. It cannot get any more worse! Yesterday Malaysia was in panic mode! Triggered by the humongous Covid-19 numbers Chill out Malaysia! It is NOT REAL TIME case numbers. These are just BACKLOG cases only just being reported

‘Contact Tracing is virtually at a STANDSTILL. An officer at a PKD had 600 contacts to trace and yesterday was slapped with another 700 to trace These are all the manifestations of a failure of the system. There is a breakdown in the FTTIS work flow! How much longer can we tolerate these failings and lackluster performance?

‘It has been SYSTEMS GO in Selangor over and above the efforts of JKNS. They are our buddies in Selangor to rid Covid-19. Please share this widely with your friends in Selangor.

‘STFO is the Operations arm of STFC [Selangor Task Force on Covid-19] led by Public Health Physician, Prof Farhan [Asst Prof Dr Mohammad Farhan bin Rusli (Consultant Public Health Physician, International Islamic Universiti Malaysia)] to bust Covid-19. It aims TO FLATTEN THE CURVE IN THE COMMUNITY WITHIN 4 WEEKS. The MCO + EO has interrupted STFO operations. With JKNS they are resuming with vigor with the blessings of the State Government.

STFO Blueprint of Action

1. ALL +ve or household that is +ve to register under SELangkah (so that state govt can provide home kits
2. ALL high risk and household with HIGH risk persons, to pre register SELangkah: (a) for B40, we provide voucher (FREE testing) to go to nearest Selcare clinic panel (static) or mass screening (mobile); (b) for non-B40, encourage them to do testing (we provide list of participating Selcare panel clinic)
3. Community mass screening (mobile) to HIGH RISK RANK areas (from ACURA) to HIGH RISK individuals OR HOUSEHOLDS with HIGH RISK individuals (from pre-register SELangkah) e.g. (a) Old folks home (b) Hemodialysis centers (c) Nursing homes for the elderly 
4. Mass screening (mobile) to HIGH RISK super spreaders e.g. (a) communities living in crowded spaces (b) families in PPR flats (c) migrants (d) refugees. Data obtained from community leaders, refugee/migrant centric NGOs, UNHCR.
5. State / Selgate to buy RTK-Ag in bulk. To provide at minimal cost to Selcare Clinic panel. Participating Selcare Clinic panel to provide at standard low cost price. At least 2 participating Selcare panel per district.
6. To encourage ADUN to subsidise the cost and liase with respective participating Selcare clinic panels
7. To increase  Health Education Advocacy to do testing and isolate: (a) SYMPTOMATIC individuals with +ve close contacts must ASAP do testing & treatment (if needed) at nearest KKM's facility. Call 999 if severe symptoms (b) ASYMPTOMATIC individuals with +ve close contacts, encourage to do testing at nearest participating Selcare Clinic panel (c) SYMPTOMATIC inviduals with NO +ve close contacts, must do testing at nearest KKM's facility (or participating Selcare clinic - if KKM reject testing)
8. Activate GEOFENCING via SELangkah AND communicate SELamat warning system
9. Home Kits provided by STFO: Face Masks, Hand sanitiser, Information pamphlet,  Foodpack / vouchers -- for B40, unemployed, does day jobs,  SpO2 monitors include training and monitoring (for high risk patients only)

Read here (Malay Mail, Jan 31, 2021)

Covid-19: It’s all doom and gloom unless… — Dr Musa Mohd Nordin

‘There is much misunderstanding about the Covid-19 situation in the country. In particular, the high rates in the Klang Valley and the role of the only state task force, the Selangor Task Force on Covid-19 (STFC)...

‘In many ways, if the STFC had not stepped in, did mass testing, rolled out POIS (Prevention of Outbreaks at Ignition Sites), allocated Z millions for FTTIS (find, test, trace, isolate, and support), the situation in Selangor would be far worse, critical even...

‘And other states, industries, agencies, etc, are buying in STFC’s POIS programme and implementing it. This tripartite initiative between government-industry-NGOs pivots on three preventative strategies namely, enhanced public health measures, early detection testing regime and health education. So STFC doesn’t just talk but rolls out programmes, mass testing, POIS, procuring vaccines, etc, to end the pandemic...

‘At the end of the day, we are in it together. If we refuse to learn from each other and operationalise the best public health practices, we are in for a rough ride.

‘I hope the national task force, as petitioned by the 46 top physicians, is rapidly recognised, accepted, and formalised to empower it to immediately re-strategise and transform the mindset, and policy at the top end of the Health Ministry, so that the operations at ground zero will be a truly rapid-response FTTIS which has zero-tolerance for cases, clusters or outbreaks.

‘MCOs are the blunt tools of those who have failed to operationalise the back-to-basics of pandemic management and in my opinion, they should either seek a second opinion from the task force and/or gracefully exit to minimise further harm to the nation and allow the task force to steer the nation out of this Covid-19 conundrum and to protect the lives and livelihood of its rakyat.’

Read here (Malaysiakini, Jan 30, 2021)