Tiong happy with steps taken in Bintulu to contain Covid-19
BINTULU: Periodic reviews and adjustments to the measures to contain Covid-19 is a real necessity, like what has been implemented in Bintulu, said Bintulu MP Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing.
“We have been making the necessary adjustments in response to the actual on-theground situation, correcting the wrong measures and reinforcing the correct ones.
“We insisted on implementing comprehensive and strict prevention measures in Bintulu and we were rewarded with signs of declining transmissions,” he said.
After Bintulu’s daily confirmed cases numbers soared to three digits, Tiong said Bintulu Division Disaster Management Committee (BDDMC) insisted on implementing its own set of stricter standard operating procedures (SOPs), including having lockdowns of red zones and ramping up the number of testing.
At one point, he said the Bintulu Health Office was testing more than 6,000 people in a single day, which is still a record in the district.
This type of mass scale testing continues to this day, with an average of 2,000 people tested daily.
“Finally, we have been able to flatten the curve of daily confirmed cases to single digit. I strongly encourage other states to emulate our measures to determine their effectiveness,” said Tiong.
He pointed out that fighting Covid-19 pandemic cannot rely solely on forecasts alone and it is impossible to expect that the data of confirmed cases will suddenly take a swing down unless there is an effective containment strategy.
“We need to proactively attack the source of the threat, and strengthen our defences at the same time, especially when confirmed cases are detected in a specific location,” he said.
Once that is identified, he said a localised lockdown must be implemented immediately with mass testing done on all the residents in the affected area.
Tiong said infections, whether in those without symptoms or with mild symptoms, are immediately isolated and the affected places thoroughly sanitised.
According to him, police and military personnel must be mobilised to prevent residents from sneaking out from the net.
“Instead, what we have seen is piecemeal measures to contain affected areas with residents even crawling out from under barbed wire fences to escape and spread the disease. This is a sad, sad joke,” he said.
In addition, he said one of the key points in Bintulu’s antiCovid-19 measures is to upgrade the existing medical equipment there to prepare for the worst case scenario of the pandemic.
“Regardless of our resources compared to the federal government, we are still constantly raising funds to purchase more medical equipment and were even able to set up two virus testing laboratories.
“I have repeatedly urged that the National Security Council (MKN) and the Ministry of Health must not let red tape get in the way of fighting the pandemic.
“They must abandon bureaucracy and speed up the use of funds to help fight the pandemic’s life threatening issues and aim for fast and sharp resolution,” he said.
He further disclosed that local lockdown with mass testing in Sungai Plan for example had detected more than 300 asymptomatic people.
Initially, he said there were only sporadic cases in the area, which led the Bintulu Health Office to spend more than two weeks checking nearly 20,000 residents for Covid-19.
He added more and more cases were confirmed in the process, with some residents going through three to four tests, and this uncovered more than 300 cases of asymptomatic patients.
“If we were more relaxed about ramping up the number of diagnoses in that area and did not put in strict movement control of its residents, there would have been more than 300 people moving about and spreading the coronavirus without knowing. The consequences would have been disastrous,” he opined.
Tiong said the overall situation in Bintulu is easing, with the current cases mainly from the industrial clusters and a few residential areas.
He said the authorities are closely monitoring this while speeding up the vaccination programme.
So far, he said nearly 70 per cent of Bintulu’s population have taken their first dose. However, this is still far from achieving victory against the pandemic with the ultimate goal still for zero confirmed cases.
Tiong reminded the people that they are not immune from infection even after vaccination.
He said the purpose of being vaccinated is to mitigate the symptoms of the infection, especially now that there are multiple variants of the coronavirus, so everyone must remain vigilant and play their part in preventing the pandemic.
In the meantime, he was grateful for the support that many people have shown to BDDMC’s efforts to fight the pandemic as many benevolent people, entrepreneurs, and friends have contributed to the efforts.
“Their support has been a counterbalance to the critics who were dissatisfied with the strict controls we implemented and had even mocked Bintulu as ‘Negara Bintulu’ for daring to be different in our approaches.
“However, I believe our decisions have paid off and more people are taking the anti-pandemic measures more seriously,” Tiong said.