GEORGE TOWN – Penang can be a model of the whole-of-society approach where the federal and state governments pool resources and manpower to work together with the people of Penang to win the war against Covid-19.
DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng said this can be done by mitigating Covid-19 while living normal lives.
He said that the federal government’s previous policy of containment to eliminate Covid-19 had failed miserably due to non-compliance with standard operating procedures by ministers and VIPs, policy U-turns, and double standards in compliance enforcement.
He said a whole-of-society approach was introduced in Penang when Health Minister Khairy Jamaludin agreed with his suggestion to appoint Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim as state Covid-19 coordinator on September 11.
“Penang had recorded the highest Covid-19 deaths and even daily cases per capita in the country for more than a month.
“Penang not only became a red spot for Covid-19 but also a frightened state without help and hope,” he said in a statement today.
As a result, Lim said, in the past three weeks since Sim’s appointment and the integration of both the federal and state governments’ efforts, Penang has shown progress in the fight against Covid-19.
He added that from 1,865 positive cases three weeks ago on September 11, Penang’s daily cases have finally dropped to three-digit numbers beginning September 26 with 955 cases, continuing to drop to 768 cases yesterday.
Similarly, the number of deaths due to Covid-19 have also reduced, from a record high of 47 reported deaths on September 9 to 18 deaths yesterday.
“All these were possible due to the quick and effective measures implemented over the past three weeks, especially the ramping up of our healthcare capacity by building a field hospital, setting up more Covid-19 beds as well as ICU beds, mobilisation of more medical personnel and equipment to support the increased workload, more quarantine facilities, and quicker response time.”
However, Lim said, Penang is still unsafe and DAP urges the federal government to expedite the resources to strengthen the healthcare system to implement the find, test, trace, isolate and support (FTTIS) mechanism for Covid-19.
He said the federal government should also expedite the creation of more ICU facilities, including paediatric ICUs, in Penang.
“Even though the cases are reducing, we must learn the lesson from neighbouring countries experiencing a new wave of Covid-19 cases,” he said. – The Vibes, October 3, 2021
