Yii is seen speaking in Parliament. — Photo via Facebook/Kelvin Yii Lee Wuen
KUCHING (Sept 23): The Federal government has been called on to explain its plans for the implementation of a National Testing Strategy.
Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii, who made the call in Parliament, said this is necessary as it is vital for everyone to transition properly and safely, especially when the government is talking about endemic Covid-19.
Yii said the strategy is fundamental and should have been implemented last month or even earlier.
“The announcement of travel bubbles like Langkawi should have been done together with the testing strategy to protect those travelling in and even out of Langkawi.
“That’s why we saw confusion and last-minute flip-flop decisions before travellers went to Langkawi including the need to test before flying in or even flying out.
“All this should have been thought through since the beginning to ensure the safety of not just the bubble, but also those coming out of the bubble that travel back to their respective places,” he said in a statement today.
Yii said it is now even more pertinent that such a strategy is in place as the government is talking about opening up more travel bubbles.
He opined that the government can no longer continue to classify economic activities based on ‘essential and non-essential’.
“When the people are struggling, all businesses are now essential and thus should instead be classified as ‘higher risk to lower risk’ and as such the testing strategy will be catered and adjusted to that risk assessment.
“Then under the National Testing Strategy, lower risk economic or even social activities will have their own testing SOP with lower frequency of testing required compared to those of higher risk.
“Higher risk industries including factories, manufacturing, construction, and others will require more testing, maybe up to weekly or biweekly testing, in order to cut out workplace clusters,” he suggested.
Yii said this would cover all social events and even educational institutions.
He stressed this is fundamental, especially when the government is removing more and more restrictions.
“One of the things the government must do to make sure the effectiveness and compliance of this National Testing Strategy is for self-test kits to be affordable and accessible to all including the poor.
“That is why I reiterate my call to subsidise these test kits, push it below RM10 so that it is not too burdensome to lower income groups and even SMEs that have been struggling during this tough time,” he said.
Yii also called for the government to incentivise the public to report all self-test kit results on MySejahtera.
“Currently, in most cases, when we do this self-test kits, we do not report it especially when it is negative and this hinders us from capturing the total amount of tests done nationwide, which affects the nation’s positive rate.
“In order to get a better view of disease burden in our country and also to capture all data, especially of total tests done including self-test kits, the government must find ways to incentivise and encourage people to report in their results.
“That is why I suggest the government implement a ‘cash-back’ or rebate system,” he said.
Yii proposed the government could subsidise the kits at RM10 and have them sold at RM12 so that users who report their results may get an RM2 rebate credited into their MySejahtera.
He added there must also be a clear and specific advisory for those who test positive so that they know what to do next.
“This is fundamental if we want to transition safely and sustainably into endemic Covid-19 and its implementation should not be delayed any further,” he said.