KUCHING: Bandar Kuching member of Parliament (MP) Dr Kelvin Yii has expressed his concerns on the level of non-compliance with the COVD-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) at the Citrawarna Keluarga Malaysia 2022, held at the Kuching Waterfront.
He said failing to enforce and follow the SOPs strictly will risk the event becoming a super-spreader and pose threats to the vulnerable groups, especially children.
“Although I believe in the need on transition to an endemic phase, we are not there yet and we must not be reckless. Besides, such an event will definitely increase the risk of direct exposure to virus as SOPs compliance is difficult to enforce,” he said in a Facebook post today.
Apart from the non-compliance of SOPs, Dr Yii said what was more worrying was the young and (most likely) unvaccinated children that were present at the event.
“There are pictures of young children and even adults not wearing masks when in the crowd (without physical distancing),” he said, referring to several photos of the event which have gone viral on social media.
Dr Yii reminded the public not to take the severity of COVID-19 and the Omicron variant lightly, especially its effects on children.
He said children infected with COVID-19 will face risk of developing serious complications, particularly Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome in Children (MIS-C).
He explained that MIS-C is a condition where different tissues and organs become inflamed including the heart, lungs, kidneys, brain, skin, eyes and gastrointestinal organs which is the most severe form of COVID-19 in children and can be deadly.
Last Saturday, Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah confirmed that patients below 12-year-old admitted to hospitals have seen an upward trend especially in February due to the Omicron.
The MISC-C Malaysia Study Group recorded 174 cases of the syndrome with 57 per cent involving children aged five to 11. He said the study found seven deaths resulting from MIS-C or four per cent of cases.
Therefore, Dr Yii urged the government and organisers to allow programmes where crowd control can be done properly with strict SOPs.
He said the organisers should continue to remind visitors that children below 12 years are now allowed at the event.
