PETALING JAYA • Malaysian health experts are urging the government not to rush into relaxing standard operating procedures (SOPs) for curbing the spread of Covid-19, even though the nationwide lockdown has led to a slight decline in the number of infections.
Malaysian Public Health Physicians Association president Zainal Ariffin Omar said that while the results of the lockdown were encouraging, any decision to loosen restrictions must be made cautiously.
"Let's not rush to allow more activities. It has to be done slowly instead, such as allowing longer operating hours for takeaways at restaurants instead of allowing pasar malam (night market) or schools to reopen," said Dr Zainal.
"We don't want a scenario where allowing more sectors or activities to open will result in an increase in the number of Covid-19 cases and the prospect of another lockdown," he said.
The lockdown was initially enforced for 14 days from June 1 but the government has announced a two-week extension until June 28.
In a special address to announce a post-pandemic recovery plan yesterday, Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin said lockdown measures would be eased once cases fall below 4,000 cases a day.
Malaysia recorded 5,419 more Covid-19 cases yesterday, according to the Health Ministry, as infections continued to fall from a pre-lockdown high of 9,020 on May 29.
Dr Zainal said the lockdown had achieved its aim, but pointed out that there is "still a long way to go to bring the numbers down".
He said: "The government should also ensure that Covid-19 screenings be capped at 100,000 to 120,000 daily so that any changes to the number of positive cases are actual."
Professor of occupational and public health Victor Hoe from Universiti Malaya said there were many factors the government must consider before making a decision to relax the SOP.
These include the virus' transmission rate, the R-naught levels - a mathematical term that indicates how contagious an infectious disease is - test positivity rates and number of cases.
He noted that the Covid-19 variants detected in Malaysia currently are very infectious.
"After taking all these factors into consideration, the government should not rush into relaxing the SOP, especially the one involving the removal of face masks in indoor areas," he said.
Prof Hoe said that current Covid-19 developments globally pointed to a rise of the Delta variant, a more infectious strain of the virus first detected in India.
"The situation is basically very fluid. Unless the government knows cases have gone down, where contact tracing is possible and isolation of positive patients can be done more effectively... the SOP relaxation should not be taken so lightly," he said.
Meanwhile, Malaysia's vaccination rate hit a new high on Monday with nearly 200,000 jabs administered.
The country dispensed a total of 197,963 doses on Monday, with 142,890 people receiving their first dose and the other 55,073 people receiving their second dose, according to the country's special committee for the Covid-19 vaccine supply. The figure is the highest recorded since the vaccination programme started on Feb 24.
In all, more than 4.7 million doses have been administered since the start of Malaysia's National Immunisation programme, with around 1.4 million people fully vaccinated.
THE STAR/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
