DAP welcomes the announcement by Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin announcing the appointment of Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim as the Covid-19 coordinator between Penang and the federal government, who will always receive a follow-up from the Health Minister. This appointment of Steven Sim was necessary to find a joint collaborative effort to break the rise in COVID-19 infections that caused Penang to record amongst the highest infections, deaths, ICU beds and ventilator utilisation per capita in Malaysia.
For too long, Penang has failed to contend with or match up to the rise in infections and deaths. Despite the frontliners doing a magnificent job but unable to cope against mounting public anger due to insufficient resources and manpower. Public dissatisfaction has also spilled over unfairly against the Penang state government and particularly the Penang State Health EXCO for being a helpless bystander when Penangites are suffering and dying without getting any help from the COVID-19 Assessment Centres(CAC), no answers to telephone hotlines, no ambulances arriving when called and insufficient number of ICU beds.
The community spread of COVID-19 is critical particularly with the close density of Penangites living in a closeted environment. I wish to commend both the Health Minister and Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow for realising the gravity of the COVID-19 situation in Penang and accepting my suggestion to break this logjam by appointing Steven as the COVID-19 Coordinator that can allow us to jointly win this battle against COVID-19 together.
Steven Sim outlined six areas he would like to focus on as the state-federal Covid-19 coordinator, namely to increase healthcare capacity; to reduce the response time for Covid-19 patients to get health services; more efficient risk assessment and enforcement especially at factories; to ensure a stable supply of vaccines to have 100 percent of Penang adults vaccinated next month; to ensure healthcare for those under home quarantine to reduce the number of brought in dead cases, and for more transparency in Penang’s daily Covid-19 statistics.
Steven will have a huge task to try to turn things around. With the support both from Khairy and Chow, as well as leveraging on the professional expertise of the private medical sector, a revamp on how to manage the COVID-19 may succeed. Winning the battle against COVID-19 to save lives and livelihood requires not just a common ground but also a whole-of-society effort for the public good.