CORONAVIRUS | 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
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.