Damansara MP Tony Pua has called on Health Minister Dr Adham Baba to resign and take responsibility for what he calls the disastrous escalation of the Covid pandemic in Malaysia that has occurred despite a lockdown that has been in place since May 16, 2021
"It beggars belief that the country has been in a lockdown mode for more than eight weeks now and yet the number of Covid-19 positive cases in the country appears to be running out of control.
"Yesterday, the country reported a record 11,079 cases, shattering the previous high of 9,353 cases recorded just two days earlier. This is rapidly approaching three times the 4,140 cases reported on May 16, 2021, when MCO 3.0 was declared.
"It is now completely obvious that Adham has been resting on his laurels, believing that the virus will just magically fly away once the lockdown is put in place," Pua said in a statement this morning.
The Health Ministry reported 11,079 new Covid-19 cases yesterday – the highest daily case count ever, with active cases in the country standing at 96,236. There are 972 patients in the Intensive Care Units (ICUs), with 456 intubated.
Another 125 deaths were reported, bringing the national death toll to 6,385.
Pua said that for more than eight weeks, the people have suffered in silence, losing income and livelihood and hoping to return to some form of normalcy as quickly as possible.
"However, Adham and the Perikatan Nasional (PN) government have completely wasted the sacrifice of the people because they have failed to play their role to contain the spread of the virus to complement the people’s sacrifice during the lockdown.
"The most obvious evidence of this failure is the fact that the Ministry of Health has conducted a declining number of Covid-19 tests, despite the high and rising percentage of positive rates among those who were tested.
"The weekly test positivity rate in cases has remained elevated throughout the MCO period, with the lowest of 6.61 percent achieved in the week of June 6 to 12.
"Based on World Health Organization recommendations, any positivity rate above five percent is too high and actions must be taken before any re-opening of the economic and social sectors are recommended," Pua added.
He said Adham's response was not to increase the number of tests to track the positive cases in order to isolate and reduce transmission but to reduce the tests substantially.
"The total number of cases tested declined consistently from average daily samples of 109,601 in the week of May 23 to 29 to 72,308 cases (June 20–26), a massive drop of 34 percent.
"This was despite repeated calls by Pakatan Harapan leaders, think tanks and the civil society imploring the ministry to carry out more tests.
Pua said the ministry has only very gradually boosted the average weekly test samples over the last two weeks, despite a sharp rise in positivity rate to 8.92 percent last week.
"Even then, the 87,457 average daily samples is still far below the testing carried out in May.
"What is the minister doing? Why is there no strategic urgency to drastically boost the number of tests carried out, as clearly, the number of untested Covid-positive cases infecting the community is still very, very large," he added.
Pua said this was proven by the report published yesterday by the Ministry of Health that the 11,079 positive cases detected were from 116,869 samples, which gave a positivity rate of 9.48 percent.
He added that instead of merely announcing another special Covid-19 task force for the Klang Valley – and with no specific plan of action in sight – Adham must take full responsibility by resigning as the health minister.
"His incompetence has caused billions of ringgit of losses, immeasurable pain and hardship to ordinary Malaysians struggling to make a living during the pandemic.
"If he fails to resign, it is imperative for the PN government to sack the most incompetent health minister we have ever had in the history of Malaysia," the DAP lawmaker added. - Mkini
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