GPS Government Of Sarawak - Are You Walking In Darkness?

 GPS Government Of Sarawak - Are You Walking In Darkness?

Douglas Uggah

‘Since early 2021 until today, most of the positive cases detected in the various communities in Sarawak have stemmed from attending social events’…quote Datu  Amar Douglas Uggah, Chairman of the SDMC and DCM of Sarawak.

https://dayakdaily.com/social-gatherings-not-allowed-in-covid-19-red-and-orange-zones/

Social gatherings in Sarawak, from earliest recorded times until March 2020, have never been a cause of infectious disease or the spread of infectious disease. In the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic there was a wide publicity campaign to educate the members of the public that social distancing and crowd control were essential in the efforts to break the transmission chain of the virus but never was it said social gatherings were the cause of the spread of the disease. There was understanding of the real cause in the early days but lately the GPS government seems to have lost that understanding and the narratives.

The source of the virus that is spreading in Sarawak (and everywhere else) is the person(s) who has been infected by the disease. Some of these people are identified when they develop the symptoms, are tested and found to be Covid-19 positive. Contact tracings and follow-ups actions have broken the chain of transmission by this category. The other group consists of asymptomatic people in Sarawak.

Those who read the SDMC’s daily report on the Covid-19 pandemic in Sarawak cannot fail but notice that quite regularly there there mention of asymptomatic Covid-19 patients.

For the benefit of Sarawakians who are unfamiliar with the term, an asymptomatic laboratory-confirmed case is a person infected with COVID-19 WHO DOES NOT develop symptoms. Asymptomatic transmission refers to transmission of the virus from a person, who does not develop symptoms i.e asymptomatic people.

These asymptomatic people who are freely moving about in Sarawak, travelling between districts and going to social gatherings like birthday parties, religious gatherings, weddings, wakes and funerals etc etc. The presence of these asymptomatic peoples in such social gatherings causes those gatherings to become Covid-19 clusters. They are the main cause for the spread of the virus now.

Is there a way to screen and identify these asymptomatic people, quarantine and treat them? Of course there is. It is called mass screening. Has mass screening been done in Sarawak? Yes but not in ways that have made the screenings into an effective tool for breaking the transmission.

The one ingredient that was and still is missing is mass screening on a ‘global ‘ scale in Sarawak. In simple terms, screen every one residing in Sarawak. Can it be done? Of course it can be done. It may be difficult. There may be constraints in the requisite manpower and in the short term, mass screening exercise will make it tougher for the local business communities but it can be done.

The framework for mass screening is already in place. The SDMC obviously have enough wisdom to divide Sarawak into zones, color code the zones and restrict movement of people between zones. The basic foundation for mass screening was already in place. They could have isolated the zones and conduct the mass screening zone by zone and identify all the positive and asymptomatic people as they moved through the zones. What was it that prevented them from optimising what they have already put in place?

Being the champion in Covid-19 transmission in Malaysia is not something to be proud of. It speaks of incompetence. Worse still, the continuing presence of the virus of epidemic scale will be accompanied by Covid-19 related deaths. On the last count, Sarawak recorded a total of 17,554 positive cases and 114 Covid-19 deaths. There were  419 new positive cases yesterday, the highest in the whole of Malaysia, again!

https://covid19.sarawak.com.my/

I think the time has come for Douglas Uggah to step down as Chairman of SDMC and a medical professional or a scientist  be appointed to head the SDMC. A politician, particularly one from the ruling government should not be asked to helm the SDMC.

And now, the most crucial part : Can the SDMC and the KKM do the global mass screening now before this pandemic get even worse! Every death subsequent to this will be on your head if you do not do what you should be doing to break the transmission and stop the virus in its track.