Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz
KUCHING: New measures are expected to be implemented under the National Recovery Plan (NRP) as the nation prepares to move into its next phase of living with Covid-19 as an endemic disease.
At the National Recovery Summit held virtually today, Ministry of Finance Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz said in his keynote address: “Moving forward, the government will progressively update the NRP to prepare Malaysia at the next normal of living with Covid-19 as an endemic disease.
“Covid-19 has shown that public healthcare is an important foundation to enable other sectors to operate. As such, we will not compromise on what is required to place our public healthcare on a stronger footing through the NRP and later, through Budget 2022.”
He added, “Among the new measures to be implemented include, firstly, we are in the process of establishing a dedicated call centre to offer immediate assistance in managing Covid-19 cases.
“Secondly, all genome sequencing is being undertaken by the Institute of Medical Research to detect the presence and spread of new variants in Malaysia.
“Thirdly, studying a much better way of deploying the Find, Test, Trace, Isolate and Support or FTTIS on an end-to-end basis.
“Fourth, looking at effective ways of managing the long Covid-19 conditions, wherein people continue to experience Covid-19 symptoms for longer than usual after initially contracting the virus.
“And fifth, factoring in booster shots, or multi year vaccination programmes, into our public health care protocols,” he said.
Beyond the pandemic, Tengku Zafrul said, the government is studying efforts to strengthen the healthcare systems, resiliency and preparedness for future pandemics, while meeting the longer term challenges of an ageing population, and non communicable diseases.
Policy measures that are currently being studied include putting in place an ‘always on’ system face, always on system and partnerships that can rapidly scale during pandemics, strengthening national and local mechanisms to detect infectious disease to stop transmission at an early stage, ensuring health system readiness to handle surges, while maintaining essential services, and developing an integrated epidemic prevention.
“Such reforms will ensure protection of lives and livelihoods, while keeping the economy, open for business,” Tengku Zafrul said.
All in, he said, Malaysia is well on its way to have 80 per cent of its adult population fully vaccinated by end of September and 100 per cent by end of October.
“Thereafter, we will start living with Covid-19 as an endemic disease,” he added.