Make ministerial statement in Dewan on Covid-19, Lim tells Khairy

 

Lim Kit Siang has reminded Khairy Jamaluddin that the people want to know what the health ministry is doing to drastically reduce the fatality rate.

PETALING JAYA: Khairy Jamaluddin owes Malaysians a full and frank ministerial statement on Covid-19 before the Dewan Rakyat adjourns this week, says DAP strongman Lim Kit Siang.

He said the health minister should not miss the opportunity to do this, especially on the high number of Covid-19 deaths, before the Dewan Rakyat adjourns until the 2022 budget meeting at the end of the month.

“Although the daily reported death numbers have come down to a quarter from 295 on Aug 30 when he took office to 74 yesterday, the bought-in-dead cases are still unacceptably high.

“The health minister still owes Malaysians a full and frank statement on the high Covid-19 death numbers, including the clearing of the backlog,” he said in a statement today.

Lim said the people want to know what the health ministry is doing to drastically reduce the fatality rate in keeping with an “all-of-nation” policy and strategy to fight Covid-19.

He said as it had been over a month since Khairy became minister, he should also explain in Parliament the expected trajectory of the Covid-19 pandemic till the end of the year.

“Although Malaysia has come down from the daily peak of 24,599 new cases on Aug 26, we are encountering difficulties in flattening the Covid-19 curve to bring the daily numbers to triple-digit numbers before lowering it to double digits.

“After one-and-a-half months, Khairy is still struggling with the daily new Covid-19 cases and unable to bring it down to below 8,000,” he said.

Comparing this with Indonesia, Lim said the country, which reached a daily peak of 56,757 new cases on July 15, managed to bring it down to four-figure numbers after 39 days on Aug 23 when it reported 9,604 cases.

“And it has even fallen to three-digit numbers with 922 new cases on Oct 4.”

The Iskandar Puteri MP said at the present rate of infection, Malaysia was likely to pass the 2.5 million mark for cumulative total cases by the end of this month and exceed three million by Khairy’s first 100 days in office. - FMT