Khairy: Virtual Covid-19 Assessment Centres, Digital Self-Quarantine Orders For Covid-19 Surge

Khairy Jamaluddin also says MOH’s recent national tabletop exercise learned lessons from the Greater Klang Valley Special Task Force, as previously, bed occupancy rates could not clearly be seen real-time.

KUALA LUMPUR, Nov 18 — The Ministry of Health (MOH) will not restore physical Covid-19 assessment centres (CACs) in cities in the event of a surge of coronavirus cases, Khairy Jamaluddin said.

Instead, the health minister said MOH would continue with virtual CACs and issue digital home surveillance orders (HSOs) to asymptomatic and mild Covid-19 cases to self-isolate in their residence.

“The FTTIS (find-test-trace-isolate-support) system has been strengthened,” Khairy said in his winding-up speech at the policy-level debate of Budget 2022 in Parliament yesterday.

“There are some improvements being done to ensure that testing, tracing, and isolation can be done more efficiently.”

Khairy added that MOH recently conducted a national tabletop exercise in the northern region of the country to craft a public health response to a simulated surge of Covid-19 cases that could also be applied nationwide. 

The tabletop exercise took lessons from the Greater Klang Valley Special Task Force (GKVSTF), he said, that looked at not just decanting patients to private hospitals, but also saw real-time bed occupancy rates in each public and private hospital, and Covid-19 quarantine and treatment centre (PKRC).

“One of the lessons we learned, before we ran GKVSTF, was that we were unable to see clearly, or in totality, at the state and national level, where the beds were, where we can decant patients with Covid and non-Covid patients, and where we can send the Covid patients.”

Khairy said the recent tabletop exercise in Perlis, for example, simulated both a Covid-19 surge and floods.

“What will be done by the PKD (district health office) and the hospitals? Not enough oxygen and medication, what happens in that case? What are the protocols to manage the crisis well?”

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