KUALA LUMPUR: With daily Covid-19 infections almost reaching 6,000 cases in the past few weeks, the rising fatalities, and with more than 800 patients in Intensive Care Unit (ICU), experts warn that due consideration must be given before lifting safety protocols.
They, however, said gradual easing of preventive measures could be done for economic sectors.
Associate Professor Dr Malina Osman said relaxing safety protocols must not only be based on the percentage of population that had been vaccinated against the virus, but also after other factors had been deliberated upon.
She said this was important to maintain the momentum of the country's recovery, safeguard the healthcare system and avoid a possible resurgence of cases.
"Due consideration must be given. This includes taking into account the number of daily new cases as well as active ones, the number of patients referred to ICU and fatalities, especially the "brought-in-dead" cases.
"We must also factor in the number of active clusters, those that are newly detected, and evidence of rampant or absence of sporadic cases," said the Universiti Putra Malaysia epidemiology and biostatistics expert.
Nevertheless, Dr Malina said gradual easing of the current safeguards could be done for the economic sector to resume operations if 50 per cent or more of employees were fully vaccinated, and by putting in place a monitoring system for compliance with standard operating procedures (SOP).
She also attributed the country's fluctuating infectivity rate (R-naught) to the emergence of Covid-19 clusters in the economic sectors.
"In the current situation, we should protect not only the vulnerable, such as the elderly, those with chronic diseases and people with disabilities, but we have to suppress the most possible source of infection or clusters.
"And in the economic or workplace settings, we can no longer rely only on the implementation of SOP as we have observed clusters or new cases (emerging from work places) are constantly being reported despite efforts to curb the spread of infection."
The World Health Organisation (WHO) recently issued an advisory, urging governments not to lift their Covid-19 management measures "too early" after observing a downward trend of daily new cases.
WHO representative to Malaysia, Brunei and Singapore Dr Jacqueline Lo Ying-ru had said it was paramount for governments to have a recovery plan to prevent another round of Covid-19 infections.
"At the same time, it is also crucial not to lift (safety) measures too early. Some countries in Asia with a high vaccination rate against Covid-19 are unfortunately seeing a resurgence of infections, although not severe.
"It is a complicated issue and I think it is important to remind everyone to listen to your respective health authorities, follow their advice, and participate as responsible citizens in their response," Dr Lo said during the launch of the European Union-Southeast Asia Health Pandemic Response and Preparedness Programme held virtually here on Tuesday.
On whether the four-phase National Recovery Plan (NRP) had everything to steer the country out of the pandemic-induced crises, Dr Malina said the proposed number of daily new cases that would allow the country to progress to the next phase should be reviewed.
She said present statistics revealed that the active cases and number of critical patients in the hospitals were indicators which correlated well with the number of fatalities linked to the virus.
"I think any decision (for the country to move into another phase under the NRP) should not be based on the number of new cases alone, as it is subjected to efforts which are related to contact tracing or screenings, and potentially affected by the number of samples being sent (to the lab for testing)," she said.
Malaysian Public Health Physicians Association president Datuk Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar said although the NRP had outlined the necessary indicators, target and timelines, it was imperative for the government to share all details on how to meet the objectives under the plan.
This, he said, would enable the government to galvanise all its resources, as well as those in the private sector and communities, to ensure that Malaysia could realise the targets under the NRP.
"The government should also frequently engage the Health and Science Advisory Group, which it had set up, to realise the NRP's objectives and manage the pandemic better."
He also said the government should consider conducting an independent audit on the Health Ministry and its management of the pandemic.