Health Minister Adham Baba said the previous government had failed to contain the tabligh cluster, without which Malaysia would only have small clusters of Covid-19 infections.
“On (March) 10, we had a new cluster emerge which the previous government failed to contain, which is the Tabligh cluster.
It (Sri Petaling tabligh gathering) happened from Feb 27 to March 3. It is very big. To date, we are still unable to (fully) stop its spread.
“There are still cases from the tabligh cluster that have infected up to the fifth generation.
“If the tabligh cluster was prevented, there would be no second wave. We may only have small clusters,” he said in a conference call with Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi which was uploaded on Facebook.
The move to oust the Pakatan Harapan government was set in motion on Feb 23.
From Feb 24 until Feb 29, the country did not have a government, and the country was led by interim prime minister Dr Mahathir Mohamad.
Muhyiddin Yassin, who took Bersatu out of Harapan to join forces with opposition parties, was sworn in as the eighth prime minister under his new Perikatan Nasional (PN) coalition on March 1.
The PN cabinet, including the health minister, was only sworn in on March 10.
Economist Jomo Kwame Sundaram had said the political crisis cost Malaysia three weeks in the battle against Covid-19.
During the video call, Zahid repeatedly congratulated Adham for the health ministry’s achievements.
Adham also shared about the various world leaders he had communicated with.
“I believe what I have done has been acknowledged by the world.
“I have had video conferencing with the World Health Organisation (WHO), I did a live (video conference) with the health ministers from China, Singapore and also a live conferencing, along with the prime minister with Asean ministers and Asean plus three which are Korea, Japan and China,” he said.
Adham said some 270,000 health ministry frontliners, under him and director-general Noor Hisham Abdullah, will move ahead in the fight against Covid-19.
He said the partial lockdown appears to be yielding results and that Malaysia’s recovery rate of 56 percent is also higher than the global average of 30 percent.
During the video call, Zahid also urged Adham to ensure that opposition constituencies also receive Covid-19-related aid.
Adham concurred and said he would take up the matter.
Malaysia has been under a partial lockdown via the movement control order (MCO) since March 18 in a bid to curb the spread of Covid-19.
The MCO is set to end on April 28 if there is no third extension.
As of noon yesterday, Malaysia recorded 5,251 Covid-19 cases and 86 deaths. However, 2,967 people have recovered while 2,198 are still in treatment. MKINI
Umno veep calls out deputy health minister for flouting MC
Umno vice-president Khaled Nordin has criticised Deputy Health Minister Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali for not setting a good example during the movement control order (MCO) after the latter was panned by netizens for flouting the order by visiting a tahfiz school.
“It is not just any deputy minister but the deputy minister of health who is not showing a good example during the MCO.
“In other countries such as New Zealand, their health minister resigned because he violated their lockdown, and the public in other countries are also expressing their anger towards the UK housing minister and the South African communications minister for the same reason.
“We do not want to have a different set of rules. The leadership must show a good example,” Khaled said in the caption of his Instagram post today, which depicted Noor Azmi having a meal with a group of people at a tahfiz school.
In New Zealand, its Health Minister Dr David Clark had offered to resign after he ignored national lockdown rules twice, after being photographed going for a mountain bike ride 2km away from his home and later for driving his family 20km to a beach on the first weekend of lockdown.
However, New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern had rejected the resignation. Instead, she stripped him from his associate finance minister portfolio and demoted him to the bottom of the cabinet rankings.
Since yesterday, netizens have been criticising Noor Azmi, Terengganu Menteri Besar (MB) Ahmad Samsuri Mokhtar and former Terengganu MB Ahmad Said for breaking the MCO by making social visits or having meals in a gathering.
Noor Azmi, who is Bersatu’s Bagan Serai MP, had posted on his Facebook recently about visiting a tahfiz school to hand out goods and have a meal together.
In the pictures attached, he was shown handing out the goods and then a group of about 20 people were shown having a meal together, including Noor Azmi.
The posting has since been deleted, but screenshots of the posting are making the rounds on social media.
A quick check by Malaysiakini also could not produce any results for the account or page titled ‘YB Dato Dr Haji Noor Azmi’ which had made the posting.
Meanwhile, Ahmad Samsuri posted on his Twitter yesterday that he had visited Ahmad Said’s house to discuss current issues in Terengganu and Malaysia as well as have lunch together, with pictures included.
Netizens have since questioned why PN leaders are publicly flouting the MCO while asking the rakyat to stay home.
They also urged the police to take action against these leaders for breaking the MCO. MKINI
MKINI
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