KUCHING: The State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) has formed four task forces as part of its ongoing battle against the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to SDMC chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas, the task forces will strengthen the committee’s strategies in overcoming this unprecedented crisis.
The first task force, to be headed by former Sarawak Health director Dr Jamilah Hashim, will help accelerate the flattening of the curve of the current wave of Covid-19.
“This task force will observe and suggest ways to accelerate the flattening of the curve of Covid-19 by taking into account issues related to case notifications, case investigations, contact tracing, active cases tracing, health education and so on.
“The task force will also monitor the development of the proposed issues,” he said.
The second task force, to be led by former Sarawak Health director Datu Prof Dr Andrew Kiyu, will aid in preventing and controlling upcoming waves of the disease.
“The second task force will observe and suggest ways to prepare SDMC for the next wave of Covid-19.
“We need to learn from the smaller waves of Covid-19 cases and try to improve from that,” said Uggah.
The third task force will provide a prepared plan in the presence of a possible bigger wave of Covid-19 hitting the state.
Uggah revealed that the team would be led by Minister of Local Government and Housing Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian.
He also asked for the task force to recruit several medical officers from Sarawak General Hospital (SGH) including SGH director, contagious disease expert and lab chief.
“I want pharmacists from the Sarawak Health Department to be in this task force as well,” he added
The fourth and last task force would also be led by Dr Kiyu to be in charge of real-time analysis of data on Covid-19.
Uggah said the task force would gather existing data of the disease in Sarawak and come up with proposals to be analysed.
The task force would also be responsible to provide data analysis done by its members or with the help of outside expertise, he added.
“Basically, we need to know what data needs to be analysed so that immediate actions can be taken. I want the actions to be taken based on evidence to avoid blindly dealing with the Covid-19 situation,” said Uggah.
