The Covidnow website will act as the sole source of truth for the MoH

by AZALEA AZUAR / Pic by BERNAMA

HEALTH experts have warned of the rising number of brought-in-dead (BID) cases due to lack of monitoring as well as insufficient data.

According to Kasih Cyberjaya Hospital general health and occupational health specialist Dr Hanafiah Bashirun, most of the BID cases involved young Covid-19 patients who were classified as Categories 1 and 2 and underwent home quarantine.

“The mistakes usually happen are that they don’t know what to monitor,” he said.

After the Covid-19 patients have undergone assessment at the Covid-19 Assessment Centre (CAC), they would be given a monitoring kit which includes a pulse oximeter to check oxygen levels.

“Not everyone knows that the normal value for your oxygen level is supposed to be more than 96%. Anything below it is considered abnormal and they need to go to the hospital,” Dr Hanafiah explained.

Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin Abu Bakar (picture) yesterday launched a new website — http://covidnow.moh.gov.my — presenting current data and statistics on Covid-19 cases and its impact on healthcare.

The Covidnow website will act as the sole source of truth for the Ministry of Health (MoH).

As of Sept 8, the MoH data showed that there were 3,362 BID cases, out of 19,163 deaths. Out of 361 new deaths recorded yesterday, 102 were BID cases.

To address this rising concern, MoH will admit Category 3 and high-risk Category 2 patients to low-risk quarantine and treatment centres.

Senior consultant paediatrician Datuk Dr Amar Singh took note of the number of BID cases in Selangor where up to 50% of the deaths were BID recently.

“The BID data has been creeping up. So, let’s say June, it was only about 5%-6%. Now, at the end of August, it’s reaching 30% overall. So, that’s a huge jump in BID in data and percentage,” he explained.

Dr Amar hopes that under the new health minister, more in-depth information regarding BID cases would be publicly available. Khairy had said that Malaysians would be adjusting to “living with the virus” mindset in the next two months.

However, Dr Amar warns that reopening the economy too soon is “asking for danger”.

“We should push the vaccination very hard until maybe the end of the year when we get 80% of everybody vaccinated, including children,” he said.

Sarawak has begun vaccinating 12-17 year olds from Wednesday, with priority given to the high-risk groups, or teenagers with preexisting health conditions.

Khairy had said that after Sarawak, the vaccination rollout for the 12-17 age group will involve those in the Klang Valley and Labuan.