Penang can be a model of a whole-of-society approach, whereby both the Federal and state governments pool both resources and manpower to work together with 1.7 million Penangites to win the war against COVID-19, by mitigating COVID-19 whilst living normal lives. The Federal government’s previous policy of containment to eliminate COVID-19 failed miserably due to non-compliance with SOPs by Ministers and VIPs, policy U-turns and double-standards in enforcement between the ordinary rakyat and Ministers.
Nothing highlights such abject failure more than the complete abandonment of the four phase National Recovery Plan of the previous Prime Minister Mahiaddin Md Yassin, where the country is moving out of the various phases even though daily infections have not gone below 4,000 cases. Both Mahiaddin and partially the current Prime Minister Ismail Sabri, have to bear responsibility for the inability to follow a whole-of-society approach to unite all parties, including the opposition, and the people to battle COVID-19.
A whole-of-society approach was introduced in Penang when Health Minister Khairy Jamaludin agreed with my suggestion to appoint Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim as the Penang COVID-19 Coordinator on 11 September 2021. Penang had recorded the highest COVID-19 deaths and even daily cases per capita in the country for more than one month. The ICU bed and ventilator utilisation then exceeded 100% and there was no response to the desperate cries for help from COVID-19 patients and their family members.
There were many tragic stories of COVID-19 patients just dying without getting the required treatment or ICU beds. Medical professionals have said that one of the causes of high death rate was due to the lack of medical facilities, especially ICU beds to give timely treatment to Covid-19 patients. Penang not only became a red spot for COVID-19 but also a frightened state without help and hope.
In the past three weeks since Steven Sim’s appointment and the integration of both the Federal and state governments’ efforts, Penang has shown progress in our fight against Covid-19. Average daily cases and total number of deaths are reducing substantially for three consecutive weeks. From 1,865 positive cases three weeks ago on 11 September 2021, Penang daily cases have finally dropped to 3-digit numbers beginning 26 September 2021 at 955 cases and continuing to drop until 768 cases on 2 October 2021.
Positivity rate has also improved tremendously from almost 20% on 11 September 2021 to 7.5% on 29 September 2021. We are now much closer to the 5% standard recommended by the World Health Organisation for adequate testing.
Similarly, the number of deaths due to Covid-19 have also reduced, from the record high 47 reported deaths on 9 September 2021 to 18 deaths yesterday on 2 October 2021. Reference to ICU bed utilisation is now attended to unlike in the past. Failure to provide ICU beds for Category 5 patients is no different from giving a death sentence.
22 More ICU Beds In 3 Weeks Saving Precious Lives With 20 More Coming
While no additional ICU beds were added when our Covid-19 cases started to rise in late July 2021, 22 ICU beds were added after aggressive intervention by Steven Sim, the DAP MP for Bukit Mertajam who was appointed Penang state and federal coordinator for Covid-19 by Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin and Penang State EXCO member Phee Boon Poh as the chief of the Penang Emergency Response Team by Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow on 11 September 2021.
All these were possible due to the quick and effective measures implemented in the past three weeks, especially the ramping up of our healthcare capacity by building a field hospital, setting up more Covid-19 beds as well as ICU beds, mobilisation of more medical personnel and equipment to support the increased workload, more quarantine facilities, and faster response time. I was informed that about 20 more ICU beds will be added in the coming weeks. Each ICU bed costs between RM500,000 to RM1,000,000 and requires heavy medical manpower.
Whilst there has been progress, Penang is still not safe yet. DAP urges the federal government to expedite the resources to strengthen our healthcare system so that we can effectively implement the find, test, trace, isolate and support (FTTIS) mechanism for Covid-19. The federal government should also speed up the creation of more ICU facilities, including pediatric ICU in Penang. Even though the cases are reducing, we must learn the lesson from neighbouring countries experiencing a new wave of Covid-19 cases. Our healthcare system must be on a standby to quickly deal with any future rise in Covid-19 cases. We cannot go through another round where slow turnaround response will cause untold sufferings and even death.