Virologist says Covid control measures will keep changing according to situation

Yong said that Covid-19 at first was severe and had a high fatality rate two years ago. The disease has been changing over time and the severity was decreasing.

"In the first year, the goal was zero or no patients at all, so prevention measures were strict with nationwide lockdowns. However, we realised in the second year that the goal was impossible, so the focus changed to reducing the number of patients to the least possible. This still involved some lockdowns and suspension of some activities.

“This year [the third year], we know that we must live with the disease. The severity is low while the number of patients is high at around 10,000 per day. The fatality rate is down to 1 to 2 deaths per 1,000 patients.

“We are not following the timeline or closing the country anymore. Prevention measures are aimed at reducing severity in risk groups to reduce fatalities," he said.

For diagnosis, "patients with mild symptoms or those who are asymptomatic need to take only do ATK tests because RT-PCR has a high cost and cannot be done at every place. Only people in risk groups need to be tested with RT-PCR,” he said.

For treatment, “we are not isolating every patient in field hospitals or hospitels as before. Patients with mild symptoms could be treated at home with symptomatic treatment”, he said.

Yong added that only people at high risk need to undergo quarantine for 10 days, with ATK tests on the third and seventh days. “They will be able to work if test results were negative. However, they still need to strictly take care of themselves for five to seven more days,” he said in the post.

Low-risk people could report for work, but they have to protect themselves and monitor their symptoms for seven days, he suggested.

Yong concluded that the measures will always change, according to the situation at that time.