Malaysia yesterday reported 22,802 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the cumulative infections of over three million mark. It is the fourth highest daily new Covid-19 infection for Malaysia throughout the two-year Covid-19 pandemic.
At this rate of explosive increase, daily new Covid-19 infections will set a new daily peak today or tomorrow, as the four highest daily new Covid-19 infections were: 24,599 infections with 393 deaths on August 26, 2021; 23,948 infections with 178 deaths on August 19, 2021; 23,564 infections with 233 deaths on August 20, 2021 and 22,579 infections with 285 deaths on August 28, 2021.
That was the Delta variant.
Although the Omicron variant is more transmissible and is not more severe or deadly as Delta, it is completely unacceptable that there were 24 Covid-19 deaths in one day on Friday, February 11,2022, and the Health Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin must not delay in devising a new strategy to reduce the number of Covid-19 deaths to the lowest number possible.
In the last two weeks, there were 147 Covid-19 deaths in Malaysia as compared to 31 Covid-19 deaths in Singapore.
Johore with 2,860 new Covid-19 cases yesterday is a record-high for the state in the two-year Covid-19 pandemic, as the daily peak of Covid-19 infections in Johor was 2,785 cases on 26th August 2021.
In the last two weeks, Johor with 21 Covid-19 deaths had the second highest number of Covid-19 deaths after Perak which recorded 24 Covid-19 deaths.
With the Prime Minister Ismail Sabri declaring yesterday that the federal government would not re-enforce any movement control order (MCO) or declare another Emergency despite the spike of Covid-19 cases in the country, Ismail should convene an urgent meeting of the special committee on pandemic management which was supposed to meet weekly but had not met since Nov. 8, 2021.
This is to ensure that there is “collective effort to involve all stakeholders and ensure the nation’s recovery will proceed as planned, in line with the Keluarga Malaysia spirit” and to ensure that the voters’ democratic rights in the Johore state general election on March 12, 2022 are violated or suppressed in the name of the Omicron wave.
(Media Statement by DAP MP for Iskandar Puteri Lim Kit Siang in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday, February 12, 2022)