Image credit: Malaysiakini
KUCHING, June 27 — The government should prepare a clear exit strategy and standard operating procedures (SOP) to allow a safe and sustainable reboot of economic activities in the country during the Covid-19 pandemic, said Bandar Kuching MP Dr Kelvin Yii.
He pointed out it is important the government learn from their mistakes during the movement control order (MCO) and not repeat same old tricks and expecting different results when deciding on the MCO extension.
“Based on recent statements by the Small and Medium Enterprises (SME) Association of Malaysia, approximately 100,000 companies have ceased operations since the first MCO, and an additional 50,000 may go out of business if there is any extended lockdown.
“A recent study shows that over half of SMEs won’t survive until September 2021 and 30 per cent of them may fold up if the current FMCO is further extended,” he said in a statement today.
He also said the government must face the facts that they have failed to make full use of the current MCO period to ramp up necessary public health measures as recommended by experts.
This, he added, resulted in the current “half-baked lockdown” to fail to achieve its intended target as it did not significantly lower the country’s infection rate even though it came at a huge economic cost to many middle and small businesses especially those that were not allowed to operate during this MCO.
As such, he suggested the government take pro-active steps such as by subsidising self-testing kits for all industries to make it affordable for industries to use it for their workers on a weekly basis.
“(This is) to properly cut down workplace and factory clusters. This helps develop and maintain a work safety bubble to reduce risk of transmission.
“By subsidising such test kits and making it affordable, it is much cheaper in a long run than the economic cost of such industries closing all the time when there is a cluster.
“This is where the government must facilitate the procurement of such test kits to make sure it reliable, sensitive, and affordable especially if purchased in bulk,” he said.
He believed that faster test kits such as the breathalysers approved in Singapore, that take about one to two minutes to produce the results and do not involve swabbing, must be explored.
“In time, almost all industries including the airport, seaport, office buildings, malls, hospitals, factories and educational institutions can use these kits to screen staff and visitors,” he said.
He also said the government must have continuous engagement with all stakeholders and industries through relevant ministries to sort out necessary arrangements and even allow each industry to propose their own SOP while they resume operations.
“This is to make sure that the SOPs are targetted, clear and avoid illogical SOP like we see during this current FMCO (full movement control order). No one knows better the conditions on the ground than the industry players themselves and they must be allowed to give input and propose suitable SOP with proper guidance from the Ministry of Health (MOH).
“They must incorporate the latest knowledge of the virus into the SOP including more emphasis on proper ventilation to reduce airborne transmission, rather than the current emphasis on surface decontamination,” he said.
Source: https://www.malaymail.com/news/malaysia/2021/06/27/bandar-kuching-mp-govt-should-prepare-clear-exit-strategy-sop-to-allow-rebo/1985355