Consider ‘Living with Covid-19’ strategy, Kit Siang tells govt

 

Lim Kit Siang said the daily alarming Covid-19 figures necessitate a new approach, in line with that of UK and Singapore. (Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah Facebook pic)

PETALING JAYA: Malaysia must seriously consider changing its Covid-19 battle cry from “Zero Covid-19” to one of “Living with Covid-19” to be in line with global changes taking place in the pandemic management, says DAP stalwart Lim Kit Siang.

He said the July 26 Parliament sitting will be the best platform to discuss this important strategy, which is vital to fight the raging pandemic in the country, with daily figures creating fear among Malaysians.

Lim, who is Iskandar Puteri MP, said the parliamentary select committee for health, science and innovation, which is meeting next Friday, should be entrusted with the task of drafting a new policy for the nation to make the transition to the “Live with Covid-19” perspective.

“The committee should invite health experts from both the public and private sectors to give their views on the elements of the policy as Malaysia must move away from the blind faith in lockdowns.

“We can change from ‘no-Covid-19’ to ‘living with Covid-19’ but there is no one strategy and approach which can be used for all countries.

“At present, Singapore and the United Kingdom are the two countries with diametrically different strategies which have opted for the latter,” he said in a statement today.

Lim said this new strategy must embrace two important elements, namely the restoration of public trust and confidence and an “all-of-government” and “whole-of-society” mobilisation, which was missing in the last 18 months.

He said Malaysia needed a new strategy badly as it was setting many dubious new records almost every day with the number of cases and deaths.

“Yesterday, for instance, Malaysia set a new peak for daily deaths with 138. We were also in the world’s top 10 for daily new cases and in the top 11 for daily deaths.

“For the first time, there were more daily Covid-19 deaths in Malaysia than in the US, which for a year had been the worst-performing nation in the world. For the past two months, Malaysia had been exceeding the daily toll in the UK,” he said.

Lim said these were alarming figures and thus Parliament will be the best platform to debate and change the country’s strategy. - FMT