Selangor Journal
A Selcare healthcare worker sorts out the samples taken for analysis during the free Covid-19 community screening at Dewan Komuniti MBPJ, Petaling Jaya, on May 23, 2021. — FIKRI YUSOF/SELANGORKINI

Community screenings help trace close contact in Covid-19 clusters

By Amin Ridzuan Ishak

SHAH ALAM, June 11 — The third phase of the free community screenings organised by the Selangor government will expand into areas where there are Covid-19 clusters to conduct close contact tracing.

State executive councillor for public health Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud said the move was to help district health centres that are currently handling too many cases of Covid-19 infection.

“We will do it manually by looking at the index and close contact as well as the generation of infection, we will make an announcement for anyone involved to come for a free screening.

“This measure can detect close contact who are infected yet asymptomatic,” she said during Media Selangor’s Bual Bicara talk show titled ‘The Best Step to Speed Up Immunisation Process in Selangor’ that was aired live on Facebook today.

Dr Siti Mariah said the next phase of screenings will also include industrial areas and state constituencies that had recorded more than 5 per cent of Covid-19 infections.

“We will do follow-up tests to the affected areas and check if the cases there remain high or vice versa.

“From there we can plan on actions that needed to be taken to reduce the number of infection, especially on the silent carrier of the virus,” she explained.

Under the Kita Selangor 2.0 stimulus package, the state government has allocated RM10.7 million to implement the third phase of the community screenings programme.

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Editor Selangor Journal