KUCHING: Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii has urged the authorities to strengthen the current home quarantine standard operating procedures (SOPs).
He said the existing advisory, restrictions, and monitoring for home quarantine were inadequate and ineffective and might give rise to a possible increase in community transmissions.
“Improvements are urgently needed in the handling of Covid-19 patients in Categories 1 and 2 (mild symptoms) as well as their close contacts by the Ministry of Health (MOH) and Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) to eliminate confusion and prevent possible flouting of the home quarantine SOPs which can lead to an increase in community transmissions in Sarawak.
“This includes improvement of the Covid-19 Assessment Centre (CAC) as well as to devise better procedural requirements and disciplines to better manage and monitor patients and close contacts that are undergoing home quarantine,” he said in a Facebook post on Monday (Aug 30).
Pointing out that isolation itself was insufficient, Dr Yii said the health status of all close contacts should be established early or there could be risks of infections spreading among family members in the household and in the community if they breached the quarantine.
“Screening close contacts will also improve management of early symptoms of Covid-19,” he said.
Dr Yii therefore gave five suggestions on how to improve the situation.
“Firstly, increase the numbers of CAC in outbreak areas (red zones) and integrate technology to implement virtual assessment, especially for those in Category 1 or 2,” he said.
He explained that this would ensure early monitoring of all positive cases, decongest the physical CACs, minimise physical contacts and enable these CACs to focus on symptomatic and sicker patients.
“With better monitoring through a virtual CAC, we will be able to detect them early before they progress to such a stage where they can no longer be treated,” he stressed.
He said currently, in Sarawak, patients were asked to fill up a digitised Google form or ‘home assessment tool to monitor symptoms daily’.
“But there is very little monitoring, and many are not given proper explanations on their conditions and what to do next.
“Therefore, in order to help relieve the already overstretched workload of medical professionals from the MOH, they must consider roping in private general practitioners to test and monitor patients and close contacts virtually if faced with a shortage in manpower,” he said.
Secondly, Dr Yii suggested releasing a clear and comprehensive ‘Home Quarantine Advisory’.
“Thirdly, increase the manpower at the Helpline and Call Centres at the CAC.
“The current hotline is very hard to reach and many times, the public tried calling for hours without getting an answer.
“This is where GPs play an important role to help answer medical questions if they have any. The state government can also mobilise more officers from other ministries to help in the call centres to answer non-medical questions as certain inquiries by those under home quarantine are not medical related but more of the necessary SOPs that they need to follow,” he pointed out.
Fourthly, Dr Yii said the state government must provide care kits such as ace masks, thermometer, oximeters and saliva test kits to all those that must undergo home quarantine.
“Oximeters and thermometers are important to monitor the symptoms and they can also report their symptoms better to those monitoring them,” he said, adding that the government must also subsidise the RTK Ag self-test kits to make them affordable and accessible to all.
Lastly, he said there must be better enforcement and surveillance of those under home quarantine.
“The government must explore the usage of technology for surveillance and also enforcement for those under quarantine so that they do not break their quarantine order.
“Constant monitoring and random spot checks must be conducted by all agencies to make sure they do not go out and expose others,” said Dr Yii.
