Kit Siang nudges KJ to provide more details on brought-in-dead cases

 

Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang has nudged Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin to provide more details on people who die from Covid-19 even before they receive treatment, also known as brought-in-dead (BID) cases.

Lim said while the government's new Covid-19 data site was most welcomed, Khairy had yet to follow through with his promise to provide more details on BID cases.

"Khairy said in Kota Kinabalu on Monday that the high number of Covid-19 deaths reported daily did not reflect the actual number of fresh deaths that occur within 24 hours, as the numbers were sometimes piled up over several days as the authorities need time to confirm the cause of death, especially in places like the Klang Valley.

"When Khairy said the daily death reports were not necessarily from the last 24 hours, as there was 'a long backlog because we have to confirm the cause of death is from Covid-19 and not something else', he was clearly saying the BID Covid-19 death figures should be very much higher.

"He promised to make further announcements and explanations on the high number of BID Covid-19 deaths on Wednesday after he got new data but Khairy has still to keep to his undertaking," Lim said in a statement.

Lim urged Khairy to disclose how many dead bodies are still in hospitals awaiting confirmation of Covid-19 infection before they are added to the statistics.

The DAP lawmaker requested that the Health Ministry provide a state-by-state breakdown of the data.

The government's new Covid-19 data website does provide some details on BID cases.

Lim noted that based on the website, 17.5 percent or 3,417 of the 19,486 Covid-19 deaths as of yesterday were BID.

Lim said this was "too high" and that the number had escalated in weeks. He noted that some 600 BID cases in July had risen to over 1,600 in August.

"Khairy must take urgent measures to cut down the high BID Covid-19 figures, and I welcome his decision that all Category Three Covid-19 patients be sent to quarantine centres along with the high-risk in Category Two cases.

"More should be done to slash the high BID Covid-19 death rates and Khairy should welcome ideas and suggestions from both the public and private health sectors," he said. - Mkini