PETALING JAYA, June 14 (Sin Chew Daily) – Public health experts remind the government not to deliberately loosen the existing standard operating procedures (SOPs) and must take into consideration the number of active cases, R0 value, ICU cases, new infection clusters and the 7-day average.

Universiti Malaya public health specialist Dr Victor CW Hoe told Sin Chew Daily the government should also closely monitor the mutant virus variants.

"We all know that the spike in local COVID-19 cases has been due to the VOC (Variant of Concern), especially the Beta and Delta variants which are more transmissible, while the vaccines have relatively poor effects on the Beta variant."

Dr Hoe also advised against taking off face masks in an indoor environment as a study shows that SARS-CoV-2 is transmissible in the air, more so for VOC.

As for the proposal to expedite the immunization program, he said the government must make sure any newly adopted vaccine has to be proven safe. and only vaccines approved by WHO or the National Pharmaceutical Regulatory Agency (NPRA) should be deployed here.

Meanwhile, Malaysian Public Health Physicians' Association (PPPKAM) president Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar said the government should inform the public of the following key indicators before easing the anti-virus SOPs:

1. Whether daily and weekly new infection numbers show a marked downtrend,

2. The numbers of new deaths and ICU cases,

3. The national and state R0 values,

4. Latest information on infection clusters.

"The government can decide whether to relax the SOPs based on the four indicators."

Dr Zainal Ariffin felt that the authorities must set a benchmark for the number of tests to be conducted each day.

For example for every confirmed case, 20 to 30 close contacts must be traced and therefore an estimated 100,000 to 120,000 tests must be conducted each day.

"If we stick to this number, then we should see clearly whether the situation has really improved."