MP SPEAKS | Govt must come up with Covid-19 test strategy immediately

MP SPEAKS | In my Parliament speech, I pushed hard for the government to explain its plans on implementing a National Testing Strategy, which is so vital for us to transition properly and safely especially when we are talking about endemic Covid-19.

This strategy is fundamental and in my view should have been implemented last month or even earlier. The announcement of travel bubbles like the one in Langkawi should have been done together with the testing strategy to protect those travelling in and out of the island.

That’s why we saw confusion and last-minute flip-flop decisions before travellers went to Langkawi, including the need to test before flying in or out. All this should have been thought through since the beginning to ensure the safety of not just the bubble, but also of those coming out of the bubble and travelling back to their respective places.

Now that the government is talking about opening up more travel bubbles, it is even more pertinent that such a strategy is in place.

The fact of the matter is that this National Testing Strategy covers all aspects of business and even socio-economy. The government cannot at this time continue to classify economic activities based on “essential” and “non-essential” anymore. When the people are struggling, all businesses are now essential and thus should instead be classified as “higher risk” or “lower risk”, and such the testing strategy will be catered to and adjusted to that risk assessment.

Then under the National Testing Strategy, lower risk economic or even social activities will have their own testing SOP, with a lower frequency of testing required compared to those at higher risk. Higher risk industries including factories, manufacturing, constructions, and others will require more testing, maybe up to weekly or biweekly testing in order to cut out workplace clusters.

This covers all social events and even our education institutions. Its impact and importance covers all aspects of our socio-economic activities and thus is fundamental especially when the government is reducing more and more of the restrictions. We cannot just rely on vaccination as a reason to open up more restrictions without strengthening other public health fundamentals.

One of the things the government must do to ensure the effectiveness and compliance to this National Testing Strategy is for self-test kits to be affordable and accessible to all, including the poor. That is why I reiterate my call to subsidise these test kits, push it below RM10 so that it is not too burdensome to lower-income groups and even SMEs that have been struggling during this tough time.

One of the things the government must look at is to find ways to incentivise the general public to report the results of their self-test kits on MySejahtera, even when it is negative. Currently, in most cases, when we use these self-test kits, we do not report it, especially when it is negative. This hinders us from capturing the total amount of tests done nationwide, which affects the nation’s test positivity rate.

In order to get a better view of how Covid-19 burdens our country and also to capture all data, especially of the total number of tests done including self-test kits, the government must find ways to incentivise and encourage people to report their results.

That is why I suggest the government implement a “cash-back” or rebate system. This works firstly by government subsidising the kit to say RM10, but it is sold slightly higher at maybe RM12. However, once the user reports the results based on the barcode of that particular test kit, the user will get back rebate of RM2, which will be credited back into their MySejahtera.

This can be one of the ways we incentivise others, including other methods to incentive those that do not have a smartphone or MySejahtera, especially in rural areas.

It is so important that the government come up with a comprehensive National Testing Strategy, find ways to subsidise test kits, find ways to incentivise people to report, and also come up with a clear and specific advisory for people who test positive so that they know what to do next.

This is fundamental if we want to transition safely and sustainably into endemic Covid-19 and its implementation should not be delayed any further.

DR KELVIN YII is Bandar Kuching MP and chairperson of the Parliamentary Select Committee on Health, Science and Innovation.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.