KUCHING: The people’s movements and social activities that involve the removal of masks are among the reasons contributed to the recent surge of COVID-19 cases in Sarawak.
Universiti Malaysia Sarawak (Unimas) Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences public health expert Associate Professor Dr Helmy Hazmi said social activities that involve the removal of masks for an extended period of time and where physical distance cannot be observed were definitely the culprits.
Furthermore, he said, another reason is that the Omicron variant, which was said to be more contagious than Delta.
“Besides, more people are conducting self-testing and those who received a positive result, have proceed for a Reverse Transcription-Polymerase Chain Reaction (RT-PCR) test, which resulted a high number of positive cases in the past few days,” he told New Sarawak Tribune when contacted.
Last week, Sarawak reported a sharp increase in COVID-19 cases, from 442 on Monday (Feb 28) to 1,248 cases the next day, which was more than 50 per cent.
Prof Helmy said although it was difficult to predict the peak of the Omicron variant in Sarawak, it would continue to rise in the coming weeks.
“The actual number of the COVID-19 cases could be higher by a few folds, as we are now testing individuals that are positive and symptomatic. There might be many more who are carriers or asymptomatic,” he said.
“The numbers that we are seeing is just the tip of the iceberg as I suspect there could be more among the community. The current situation is different from the time when lock downs were in force, and active case detection were in place. At that time, the prediction is fairly more accurate.”
“It’s not easy to determine when the peak would occur in this current surge as there are too many variables to consider that affect the disease predictability,” he explained.
Dr Helmy said the number of daily cases must be read with all other indicators as well such as the admission rate, the ICU occupancy rate as well as the brought-in-dead (BID) cases.
For Sarawak, he said, the ventilation rate and ICU utilisation rate was low due to the high vaccination rate, however, the people must not be complacent.
He said the government has tried its best to strike a balance between public health safety and economic survival, hence, those eligible recipients who have yet to receive their booster, must proceed to get it as soon as possible.
“That (vaccination) is the best tool we have right now to protect ourselves…,” he stressed.
“We also need to intensify efforts in areas with low vaccination rates and relevant authorities need to tackle the trust deficit that certain segments of the society might have against the COVID-19 vaccination,” he said.
“Apart from that, self-testing remains important before attending an event or gathering, hence, the price of self-test kits should be more affordable and constantly available to the public. The people must practice the TRIIS (Test, Report, Isolate, Inform, Seek) approach as well,” he added.
