China’s Covid-19 Experts: Maintaining These Three Lines Of Protection Will Prevent A Spike Of New Cases
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Transportation hubs, hospitals and the community must be safeguarded to prevent an exponential surge in Covid-19 cases, say medical experts from China.
Especially now that the conditional movement control order (CMCO) is underway to kick in on Monday.
The experts, a team of eight medical professionals from China, arrived in Kuala Lumpur on 18 April and met with local experts including Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, to discuss the Covid-19 outbreak in Malaysia.
During their visit, they sat with Bernama and The Star at the Chinese embassy on 2 May for an exclusive interview.
Speaking through a translator, they said that the three lines of protection – transportation hubs, hospitals, and community – are vital to prevent another spike in the number of infections now that we’ve managed to flatten the curve.
One of the experts, Dr Wen Miaoyun, said that one way the country could achieve this was by expanding the coverage of antigen rapid test kits.
The associate professor, postgraduate supervisor, and associate chief physician of ICU, Guangdong Provincial People’s Hospital said that the country should also take advantage of information technology and use it to monitor health conditions, sharing that in China, the QRHealth Code was widely used.
Dr Wen added that it is also important to focus on preventing the epidemic while lifting the restrictive measures of the MCO.
It is very hard for us to predict whether there will be a second wave. Currently, the situation in Malaysia is stabilising, and also is showing a sign of decline.
Dr Wen Miaoyun via Bernama
Another expert, who is a doctor and postdoctoral researcher at Sun Yat-sen University, Dr Sun Jiufeng opined that authorities should conduct more testing on those with Covid-19 symptoms, those who have been in pandemic-stricken areas, or those who have been in close contact with patients.
The lifting of MCO and the restoration of social-economic activities should be in accordance with the risk level. In China, every area has been categorised into either high, moderate or low risk.
Dr Sun Jiufeng via Bernama
Dr Sun also said that the MCO and other restriction measures should be adjusted according to the Covid-19 developments in the country, explaining that in China, they followed-up and interviewed patients to record whether their symptoms escalated again or if they infected more people after being discharged.
They also found that some patients tested positive again after recovering, their infectivity was relatively low.
Meanwhile, Dr Li Jun, chief physician, professor, and postgraduate supervisor of the Integrated Chinese and Western Emergency Medicine said that their team’s observations and discussion with Malaysian experts during their trip has shown them that Malaysia is capable of controlling the epidemic, adding that the devotion and professionalism exhibited by our frontline staff and health workers were admirable.
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