Call for the PN government to announce the Covid-19 daily testing figures publicly together with daily confirmed cases and use the positive rate to assess the real situation of Covid-19 in Malaysia.

We have seen the Covid-19 confirmed cases drop for the last two consecutive days from the high point of 9,020 confirmed cases on 29 May to 6,999 confirmed cases on 30 May and 6,824 confirmed cases on 31 May.

This may give the public a false sense of security that the situation of Covid-19 in the country is improving.

However, in actual fact it is not. The situation has not improved, it has worsened.

From 29 May to 31 May, the testing figures were 126 480, 109 562, and 89 227 respectively. This gives us a positive rate of 7.13%, 6.39% and 7.65%.

It is crystal clear from the testing figures that the reason for the decreased 6824 cases yesterday was due to less and insufficient testing compared to the two days before.

In fact, yesterday’s positive rate of 7.65% is the highest we have seen in recent weeks. WHO has recommended countries to ramp up testing and bring down the positive rate to below 5% threshold. A positive rate of more than 5% that would mean there are undetected cases in the community.

I urge the PN Government to announce the Covid-19 daily testing figures publicly together with daily confirmed cases and use the positive rate to assess the real situation of Covid-19 in Malaysia.

By announcing only the absolute daily confirmed cases without the testing figures will result in wrong interpretation. The failure to assess the real Covid-19 situation in the country would be disastrous and scandalous.

We have been fighting Covid-19 for more than a year. I’m appalled that the PN government still fails to see the point of announcing the testing figures publicly and instead just feeding the public the daily confirmed cases figures.

I also urge the PN government to ramp up the daily testing. From yesterday’s 6824 confirmed cases, we should be doing at least 150,000 tests to bring down the positive rate from 7.65% to below 5%, the threshold recommended by WHO.

Chong Zhemin

ADUN for Keranji and Perak DAP Publicity Secretary