Passengers wear masks at a bus station in Kuala Lumpur. Malaysia has experienced a 51 per cent spike of cases to 83 cases from 53 in a single day, reflecting the danger of the contagious virus. — Reuters pic
KUALA LUMPUR, March 7 ― PKR treasurer-general Lee Chean Chung today urged Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin to quickly fill up the Cabinet posts for the health minister and the deputy prime minister in light of the ongoing Covid-19 outbreak.
In a press statement today, the Semambu assemblyman pointed out that Malaysia has experienced a 51 per cent spike of cases to 83 cases from 53 in a single day, reflecting the danger of the contagious virus.
“Even though we have professional government officers who are highly experienced in civil service, we still require political leadership to convince the public that there is accountability for them.
“This is a reminder that the appointment of the Health Minister must be expedited and the appointment of the Deputy Prime Minister to head the National Disaster Management Agency (Nadma) cannot be postponed,” said Lee.
He pointed out that the agency has played a critical role in optimising government resources to stop the spread of Covid-19.
The PKR lawmaker lamented that Muhyiddin has allegedly failed to give political leadership that is required over the past five days since he took the nation’s highest political office to address the Covid-19 outbreak as he had allowed the health minister position to remain vacant.
Yesterday the Health Ministry confirmed 28 new cases of Covid-19, making it a total of 83 positive cases reported in the country to date.
Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said the 56th up to 83rd cases were reported to the National Crisis Preparedness and Response Centre, with all 28 cases undergoing further treatment.
“The close contacts have also been identified for investigation and further sample collection. At present, 956 individuals have been identified as close contacts,” he said in a statement.
Of the 956, 258 of them are related to Case 26’s cluster, and samples have been taken. Dr Noor Hisham said from this cluster, 18 have tested positive for the virus and 70 negative, with the latter placed under monitoring and observation at home for 14 days.
Source : Malaymail.com
