Good morning, here’s what you need to know today.
Key Highlights
- Self-testing for Covid-19
- Doctors under pressure
- Under 18s and vaccination
Self-testing for Covid-19Beginning this month, Putrajaya adopted a more liberal Covid-19 testing policy by approving self-testing kits.To date, three antigen rapid test kits have been approved:
1) Salixium (91.4% sensitivity; 100% specificity) – Saliva and nasal swab (Malaysia)
2) Gmate (90.9% sensitivity; 100% specificity) – Saliva (South Korea)
3) Beright (90.1% sensitivity; 99.3% specificity) – Saliva (China)How to make sense of the performance metrics? Sensitivity means the rate at which the kit will correctly identify a positive result while specificity means the rate at which it will correctly detect negative results.91.4 percent sensitivity means out of 100 tests, 8.6 of them could be false negatives. 100 percent specificity means there won’t be any false positives.Errors can be minimised by taking more than one test. You should note that these test kits are not authoritative tools to confirm if you have Covid-19.It serves as a guide for you to decide if you need to get an RT-PCR test, the gold standard for Covid-19 testing, but also a pricier option.The Salixium and Gmate kits are fixed at around RM39.90 with discounts for bulk purchases. Beright will go on sale in the near future.While the first two are already widely sold on shopping platforms, it is advisable to order from the website of a reliable pharmacy to avoid fake products.
HIGHLIGHTS
Doctors under pressureActive Covid-19 cases continued to climb, breaking 140,000 yesterday, more than doubling from 69,447 in 17 days.This contributed to dire scenes at public hospitals, particularly in the Klang Valley, with some Covid-19 patients sleeping on the floor due to overcapacity.Doctors are also facing tremendous pressure, some of whom can no longer take the pressure and have quit.Malaysiakini learnt that at least 15 doctors at one public hospital had quit in the last two weeks.Many of them are contract doctors who face the prospect of losing their jobs after their five-year tenure, even after giving their all to fight the Covid-19 pandemic due to a lack of permanent placements.Hartal Doktor Kontrak, a group lobbying the government to address the problem, said it will proceed with a one-day strike on July 26 after Putrajaya failed to provide a solution.
HIGHLIGHTS
Under 18s and vaccinationThe government said those aged under 18 may register for the Covid-19 vaccine but they won’t get an appointment for now.Why is the government holding back on vaccinating teenagers even though schools are set to reopen in September?This is due to data on heart inflammation-related side effects (myocarditis and pericarditis) coming out from the US.According to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention, a total of 720 myocarditis or pericarditis cases were reported among those who have received two doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech Covid-19 vaccine.More than a third of those cases affected people aged 17 and below.
However, with 161.9 million people in the US already fully vaccinated, the 720 cases only make up a minuscule proportion, although it disproportionately affects younger people.The US primarily uses three types of vaccines – Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson & Johnson.The first two use mRNA technology that has a small chance of heart inflammation issues but are treatable with early intervention. Pfizer-BioNTech is the only mRNA vaccine being used in Malaysia right now.The US still recommends those aged 12-17 to get vaccinated as it concludes that the benefits outweigh the risks.
HIGHLIGHTS
A daily glance at Covid-19
- 13,034 new cases yesterday (July 22), the second-highest on record.
- A total of 2,404 people have died in the first 22 days of this month, exceeding the total deaths in June (2,374 deaths).
- The 14-day average positivity rate is 9.7 percent, up from 8.37 percent in the preceding 14 days. Positivity rate means the proportion of positive cases from the total tests conducted. The current figure is above the World Health Organisation’s recommendation of under five percent, which suggests insufficient testing is being conducted.
- For trends on daily cases, tests, hospital beds capacity, vaccination progress and more, follow our Covid-19 tracker.
What else is happening?
- Former minister Syed Saddiq Abdul Rahman was formally charged with misappropriating RM1.12 million. He claimed political persecution.
- The government is considering allowing spouses and families separated by the interstate travel ban due to Covid-19 to be reunited if they are fully vaccinated.
- Putrajaya will conduct a cybersecurity audit on all government websites after Malaysiakini’s special report found more than 100 of them are “not secure”.
- Police have received 42 reports about vaccine-related scams and fraudulent sales, including an instance where a vaccination centre was assigned more recipients than vaccines.
- The Malaysian Trades Union Congress said it received complaints of workers being forced to take unpaid leave to get vaccinated against Covid-19 and wants the Human Resources Ministry to investigate.
HIGHLIGHTS
What are people saying?