KUCHING: Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii said there is a need to report the total number of Covid-19 tests being done daily and the percentages of positive cases.
He said while the total number of new daily Covid-19 cases is important, the data of how many had been tested needs to be known as well.
“This will give us an indication of our testing capacity, the daily infection rate and whether we are testing enough,” he said in a Facebook post on Monday.
Citing the World Health Organisation (WHO), Dr Yii said the threshold of ‘percent positive’ was five percent and if the positive rate was higher, it showed that not enough tests were being done.
“The percent positive is a critical measure because it gives us an indication how widespread the infection is in the area where the testing is occurring — and whether the levels of testing are keeping up with levels of disease transmission,” he said.
“In the case of Sarawak, we should report it in every region and district, rather than a lump sum for the whole state to get a micro understanding of each district so targeted decisions can be made,” he said.
Dr Yii also questioned the capacity of testing in the main areas now, especially in Sibu, Bintulu, Miri and Song which were recording high numbers of cases.
“Also, how long are the backlogs for cases coming out of the labs and how fast is the contact tracing in those areas? If the backlogs are longer than 24 hours, what is the government doing to address them?
“At the end of the day, I strongly believe that all these data must be made available publicly in the spirit of transparency to instil public confidence,” he said.
Dr Yii said these measures would ensure that the approaches and decisions taken by the government were backed by science and data and were pragmatic to be carried out on the ground to encourage greater cooperation from the public.
