Christina Liew wants the federal govt to help Sabah with vaccination

 

Sabah PKR chief Christina Liew has urged the federal govt to "do the needful" so the state can hit the 60 percent milestone by the end of this month in its Covid-19 vaccination efforts.

Her call came as she commended Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob for highlighting that Sabah has the lowest vaccination rate nationwide and for calling for attention and aid to be rendered to the state.

“We commend the prime minister for paying attention to Sabah’s urgent need now, which is long overdue.

"(We) hope the federal government will pay heed to the prime minister's words and do the needful so that Sabah can also achieve at least 60 percent, if not more, by the end of this month.

“The previous administration might have neglected Sabah to a certain extent in managing the pandemic. Due to the unequal supply of Covid-19 vaccines to Sabah, we are relegated to the bottom rung, unfortunately, (while) other parts of the country like Klang Valley and Labuan have already achieved up to 90 percent vaccination rate.

“To say the least, Sabah deserves respect and equal treatment and an equitable share of economic assistance and resources, as an equal partner of the Federation of Malaya,” Liew (above) said in a statement today.

Only 40 percent of Sabah's adult population vaccinated

As of Aug 31, Sabah has only fully vaccinated 40 percent of its total adult population, according to the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF). It is currently ranked last among all the states.

The federal government must now prove its sincerity in helping Sabah by addressing the state’s woes and improving its healthcare infrastructure, Liew said.

It cannot be denied, she said, that the government’s handling of this pandemic has exposed the weaknesses of the healthcare system and infrastructure in Malaysia, particularly in Sabah.

“As the pandemic evolved and raged on, reaching uncontrollable proportions, it showed how ill-prepared Malaysia and Sabah were in coping with this major health crisis from the perspectives of manpower and facilities.

“Lack of preparedness in facing an unprecedented pandemic of such magnitude is a glaring shortcoming in Malaysia in general, and in Sabah in particular,” said Liew, who is the Tawau MP.

The tunnel at the Hospital Queen Elizabeth, Kota Kinabalu, turned into a Covid-19 treatment ward

She pointed to the shortage of intensive care unit (ICU) beds, general ward beds, oxygen supply, ventilators, ambulance services as well as overstretched medical personnel during this pandemic, which has displayed the flaws in the system.

The severity of the pandemic was also reflected in the temporary partial closure of specialist clinic services at Queen Elizabeth Hospital I in July and at Queen Elizabeth Hospital II, both in Kota Kinabalu, in August this year, she added.

“How long will this situation continue at the expense of treating other illnesses such as heart disease, kidney disease, bone ailments, cancers and others?

“Sabah is not Malaya. Perhaps you can close down or curtail specialist services in one or two hospitals in Klang Valley because there are many other hospitals there, both public and private,” Liew said.

It was reported at the end of July that the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Kota Kinabalu was struggling to cope with the rising number of cases, and had converted a tunnel hallway in the hospital into a Covid-19 ward as a stopgap measure. - Mkini