On Sunday, I lamented that Malaysia is setting many dubious new records in the Covid-19 pandemic and setting a new record almost every day, sometimes even multiple new records a day!

Last Saturday, for instance, with 12,528 new Covid-19 cases and 138 Covid-19 deaths, Malaysia set four new records in the Covid-19 pandemic, viz:

· A new peak for daily new Covid-19 deaths in Malaysia with 138 deaths;

· World’s top 10th country for daily new Covid-19 cases;

· World’s top 11th country for daily Covid-19 deaths;

· Having more daily Covid-19 deaths in Malaysia than in the United States which for a year had been the worst-performing nation in the world in the Covid-19 pandemic

A day before that , we broke the 900,000-mark for cumulative total of Covid-19 cases, and before that, we set a new peak for daily new Covid-19 cases with 13,215 cases.

But Malaysia has continued to set dubious new records.

Yesterday, we worsened further in the Covid-19 pandemic and became country which is ranked No. 31 in the world with the most cumulative total of Covid-19 cases, overtaking Portugal (935,246 Covid-19 cases) as we have 939,899 cases.

At the present rate of infection, are likely to breach the million mark for Covid-19 cases and overtake Pakistan to be ranked No.30 among nations with the most cumulative total of cases when Parliament reconvenes on Monday, July 26, 2021.

Malaysia is the world’s top 10th country for daily Covid-19 cases and the world’s top 14th country for daily Covid-19 deaths.

This is why the National Recovery Plan announced by the Prime Minister on June 15 is in tatters and a new policy and strategy against Covid-19 pandemic is urgently needed, especially with the new thinking in the world the change the war aims from “Zero Covid” elimination objective to “Live with Covid” mitigation objective.

There is however an array of possible strategies and approaches in the “Live with Covid” objective, ranging from one extreme, the United Kingdom’s “Big Bang” strategy of “Freedom Day” on Monday which catapulted UK to be the world’s top No;. 1 nation in new Covid-19 cases yesterday (46,558 cases) to the gradualist approach at the other extreme as represented by Singapore.

For Malaysia, our path to return to normality starts when we stop setting dubious records in the Covid-19 pandemic, sometimes multiple records a day.

The government’s failure in the war against Covid-19 pandemic has spawned the formation of a new civil society coalition called the Health Emergency Action Plan (HEAP) with its “Roadmap to Recovery from Covid-19” platform, which should be the subject of parliamentary debate next week.

(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Wednesday, 21st July , 2021)