By Ida Nadirah Ibrahim
SHAH ALAM, April 25 — As Covid-19 pushes many nations to the brink of their resources, heads of governments across the world are scrambling to find solutions on how to cushion the social and economic impact caused by the virus.
The Selangor government has taken its own preemptive and proactive measures to contain the spread of Covid-19 within the community. The most populous state in Malaysia houses over 6 million people and has recorded the highest accumulated number of positive cases at more than 1,300 at press time.
One of the state’s course of action was to form a seven-member task force called the Selangor Task Force for Covid-19 (STFC), chaired by Datuk Seri Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, who brings in his expertise as the former health minister as well as his knowledge in medical science.
The formation of the STFC was announced by Menteri Besar Dato’ Seri Amirudin Shari on March 9 in the wake of an increasing number of cases.
In a recent interview with Selangor Journal, Dr Dzulkefly, who is also the Kuala Selangor member of parliament, talks about the functions and responsibilities of the task force and how it works hand in hand with the state government’s policies in battling the spread of the infection.
“The health sector is under the jurisdiction of the Federal government, but what we do is to supplement the efforts that are in place at the state level,” said Dr Dzulkefly.
“The task force is more focused on awareness and education, especially on getting the people to better understand Covid-19 as it is a new virus and information surrounding it is constantly developing.
“It is also crucial for the task force to give accurate and updated input to the state government.,” he said.
This alliance is showing results. Selangor has received several acknowledgements for its efforts, and Dr Dzulkefly attributes them to Amirudin’s perceptive leadership in managing the crisis.
“He is very responsive on the matter and I believe he does his own reading as well, so he understands the situation easily. When we propose recommendations, he would respond to them.
“Our hope is to see an end to this pandemic that has been a great test to many nations. So what we have to do now is arrange the steps for us to restart,” he said.
An exit plan
Many countries have been placed under various forms of lockdown in order to contain the transmission of the virus. Malaysians too, have been confined to their homes since the movement control order (MCO) came into place on March 18.
While agreeing that the MCO is necessary, Dr Dzulkefly said an exit strategy from the order has to be laid out for the people to slowly recover and adapt to the new norms introduced.
He said a meeting with Amirudin has been set for April 27 where the task force will present ways for the people of Selangor to embark on “a soft landing” as they move towards the end of the MCO, and beyond.
“The MCO has been very effective in breaking the chain of transmission and is much needed in the war against the disease, but this has left a large dent on our economy, as well as the social impact. How much longer should we restrict movement? There must be clear steps in planning the way forward.
“The task force has looked into several scenarios as the time has come for us to plan an exit strategy and how to approach this so that we can go back to our lives. We cannot lift the order abruptly but at the same time, it cannot continue further.”
Dr Dzulkefly said one of the proposed approaches is to have different levels of restrictions based on the different zone classifications for each locality.
“I cannot go into detail about what has been planned but this will be revealed in the near future. If MB (Amirudin) buys into our idea, Selangor will be one of the pioneer states to set some distinction on how to manage the post-Covid-19 predicament,” he said.
Zooming in on target groups
Dr Dzulkefly said despite shortcomings such as the lack of some crucial data, the state has done well in using Big Data Analytics, Artificial Intelligence and the Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) methodology, where randomised sampling is carried out using parameters other than population density or incidence rates.
He said this has enabled sampling to zoom in on vulnerable and susceptible high-risk groups, children, and women in the reproduction age bracket.
“This focus on community tracing has shown good results and it is important for us to take such a proactive and preemptive approach.
“Through the targeted community testing that we have conducted, we were able to detect the infection and isolate the cases early. It’s what we call a proactive interventionist (method) and this increases the success rate in identifying sporadic cases as well.”
On April 1, Amirudin had announced a RM1.35 million allocation for mass testing to be done in Covid-19 hotspots or red zone areas in Selangor, targeting 5,000 people.
The free large-scale screening operation kicked-off on April 11 and involves door-to-door checks and drive-through services.
Dr Dzulkefly said although the drive-through method has certain limitations as it can only reach those who have vehicles, it is still able to extend to a wider range of the population.
Buying time
Dr Dzulkefly said the characteristics of this virus bring a great challenge: it is smart and cunning, and symptoms only appear a few days after the infection period.
As vaccines may likely take, at best, 12 to 18 months to be available, Dr Dzulkefly said health researchers and academics are also looking at the repurposing of an already approved drug as treatment.
He said one of the STFC members, Prof Dr Adeeba Kamarulzaman, is spearheading a joint clinical trial between University Malaya Medical Centre (UMMC) and three Health Ministry (MOH) hospitals on the effectiveness of arthritis medicine to treat severe cases.
Dr Adeeba is Dean of the Faculty of Medicine, Universiti Malaya, and an infectious diseases specialist.
“But we cannot wait for the vaccine, what is most important now is ensuring that our healthcare facilities are well equipped to manage the situation and at the same time mitigate the severity of the issue.
“The MCO is an extreme or enhanced form of social distancing. I am confident that we will be able to go back to our normal lives, just as the world has done after Influenza A, B, and other diseases, which are now seen as seasonal infections,” he said, adding that the new norms of social distancing and practising good hygiene habits look set to stay.
