See advocates ART self-test among public to save lives
When the populace are making it a habit to do self-test regularly, to protect themselves, their families, colleagues and all around them, the early detection and treatment will ensure recovery and significantly lower the risk of severity to avoid long Covid and putting pressure on our healthcare facilities.
See Chee How
SIBU: The government must prioritise human lives and healthcare of the people and fund the accessibility of antigen rapid test (ART) self-test kits, Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How said.
He pointed out globally, doctors and scientists are now advocating for the strengthening of safe management measures to ensure early detection and treatment of Covid patients as the strategy to stop the spread of the deadly virus and end the pandemic.
He said the communities and the people must be prepared and equipped to be the first line of defence, to protect and enable the hospitals, the healthcare facilities and healthcare workers to stand as the last line of defence and save lives.
“When the populace are making it a habit to do self-test regularly, to protect themselves, their families, colleagues and all around them, the early detection and treatment will ensure recovery and significantly lower the risk of severity to avoid long Covid and putting pressure on our healthcare facilities.
“However, the ART self-test kits are still too costly in Malaysia, particularly in Sarawak, making them inaccessible and not affordable for the majority of Malaysians and Sarawakians.
“They are now at risk as they return to their workplaces and the restrictions on social activities around them are eased as the country and the states are into phases of economic recovery,” he added.
He warned that Covid-19 cases had surged in all countries that had opened their economies.
He said the fall of the cases would depend on the respective country’s strategy of safe management measures which include restrictions on gatherings, social activities, vaccination, booster shots and regularising self-testing within the communities and amongst their populace.
He noted that Malaysia and Sarawak specifically appeared to have experienced an exceptional phenomenon that the daily positive case numbers have drastically dipped, inconsistent with the high fatalities.
“It is unknown to us whether the strange phenomena of dipping daily positive cases will continue, or the daily positive case numbers in Sarawak will surge in the near future.
“However, it makes good sense and will never be too late that we prioritise saving lives of Malaysians and Sarawakians and protecting their health by taking the measure to inculcate the habit of doing self-tests amongst the communities and the people,” he said.
He believed if all Sarawakians are making it a habit to do the ART self-tests every day or every other day, before they leave their houses, and to seek early treatment when one is found infected, fatality will be reduced to the minimum.
He said although the federal government had promised to further lower the ceiling price of the ART self-test kits, it has yet to materialise.
“With the existing price, most Sarawakian households and individuals cannot afford to buy and conduct self-tests on themselves everyday or every other day,” he lamented.
He also pointed out that the government in a neighbouring country has utilised the dividends from its sovereign wealth fund to distribute free ART self-test kits to every household last month, and they are making another round of distribution starting this weekend.
He also said that automated ART self-test kits vending machines are installed all over the island country.
He said residents in the vicinity of case clusters or who may be found to be close contacts and visitors will receive the health risk warning or a health risk alert via text messages, to obtain their free packs of self-test kits at the vending machines.
“The widespread use of ART self-test kits has enabled the populace and visitors to detect any infection early and they can be immediately treated by the clinics and community hospitals and speedily recover, without overburdening the hospital critical healthcare facilities and health workers who can focus on treating and helping the critically-ill patients,” he said.
He also said that despite the soaring daily positive cases, Singapore has managed to keep their fatality rate at a low.
“The chief minister should make use of the visit of the prime minister to Kuching for the official launching of Malaysian Family (Keluarga Malaysia) to remind him of the federal government’s promise to lower the ceiling price of the ART selftest kits.
“We must use our best endeavour to protect the lives of all members in our family. Let’s start by giving all Sarawakians the self-test kits to keep them from harm of the virus,” he said.
He said that with the commitments of the federal government, the Sarawak government can decide to subsidise the costs such that sufficient self-test kits may be distributed free to the B40 and M40 Sarawakian households and significantly lower the selftest kits that are sold over the counters.
See also announced that a team of PSB leaders and members in Kuching City shall be selling the MOH-approved self-test kits at a special price of RM9.00 per kit at the Tian Jit Food Court at the King Centre in Kuching as an effort to promote the good practice and habit of self-testing.