Covid-19 weekly roundup

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It has been a foregone conclusion that Undi 18 will not be able to be implemented in time for the upcoming state election.
Following news that the Emergency was lifted on Wednesday by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong, it means that the State Constitution has resumed after nearly a year of being “overridden”.
What it also means is that the State Legislative Assembly (DUN), which has reached its five-year term on June 6, will finally stand dissolved.
Of course, there will be some disappointment in young Sarawakians voters who are keen to exercise their democratic rights, but as it stands, they can only do so in the upcoming general election or any by-elections.
Regardless, Undi 18 or otherwise, there is a need to introduce policies to soften the ground, pandering to the needs of the youth.
For a long while, Sarawak’s politics has been one that was based on patronage, loyalty and respect. Those who are revered by their peers, more often than not, will get a chance to be named as members of the administration.
While there is absolutely nothing wrong with sticking with what works given that it has contributed to the stability in the state over the past century, we have to think of the future.
We have to move on with the times. Presently, it is the social media age, where the spread of information can swiftly go out of hand in an instant.
With that challenge, there has to be a change in the way they see things. Undi 18, or rather, the dissatisfaction to it, will be a factor in the state election.
The other side has made it clear on that — it will continue to harp on the issue, regardless of whether it takes off or otherwise. Only time will tell if they play their cards right.
But in the meantime, it is only prudent that something is done about it, the GPS, could in its new manifesto, propose that a universal initiative be included for this target group.
This is in terms of empowerment in politics and administration, job creation, opportunities and social welfare.
Through empowerment in politics, more youthful fresh faces can be introduced and fielded in a number of seats. This is to keep the youth in the candidate as well as the initiatives done by the state government.
This group of young potential assemblypersons can be ambassadors to the coalition, promoting right thinking ideals and causes that can bring in fence-sitters.
In terms of the selection of administration members, there has to be an allocation given to the youth representatives to take over the leadership mantle in the future.
In terms of job creation, the Sarawak government has made inroads in bringing in investments to the state from foreign companies
Of course, in the long run, this will eventually lead to the creation of jobs as the industrial sector takes off.
But in the interim, there has to be an emphasis on creating more opportunities for fulfilling and promising jobs in the market.
One way of doing so is to introduce incentives for private companies through tax breaks or one-off financial injection for taking in fresh graduates be it through a quota system or based on the number of recruits.
In the age of Covid-19, small- to medium-sized companies would opt for its workforce to be downsized, meaning it will retain key individuals and get experienced hands to help instead of taking a chance on fresh graduates.
By doing this, the companies will be incentivised to offer job opportunities to fresh graduates and by some margin, address the issue of unemployment among youth.
Similar opportunities should also be given to start-ups by youth, especially those in the gig economy. Application requirements for government programmes such as the micro-credit scheme should be relaxed so that more can benefit from the initiative.
In terms of social welfare, while Malaysians enjoy universal healthcare, there should be an initiative to make sure every youth that are freelancing, in start-ups or in business are protected by an insurance scheme.
This is to guarantee their wellbeing in the event that an untoward incident happens where they are rendered incapacitated.
All these can be packaged as a universal youth-centric policy to be enjoyed by young Sarawakians. With its success, it can be a model to be adopted by other states or even the federal government.

By Melati Mohd Ariff

This is Bernama’s weekly roundup on Covid-19 and related matters in Malaysia from Oct 30 to noon yesterday. In Malaysia, case numbers have exceeded 2.49 million.

THE coronavirus 2019-nCoV (Covid-19) cases are still high as the year comes to a close, signalling that the pandemic is still at large. Globally, the virus has infected more than 249 million people in 221 countries and causing over 5.0 million deaths.

According to the latest World Health Organisation (WHO)’s epidemiology report, during the week Oct 25 to Oct 31, a slight upward trend (3 percent increase) in new weekly cases was observed, with just over 3 million new cases reported.

The United States registered the highest with new cases at 528,455 for the period, followed by United Kingdom (285,028) and the Russian Federation (272,147).

However, the Eastern Mediterranean Region showed a downtrend (12 percent), followed by Southeast Asia and Africa, which fell by 9 percent each.

Back home, the new daily cases have been hovering between 4,000 to 5,000 cases during the period Oct 30 to Nov 4.
Yesterday, the Ministry of Health (MOH) reported 5,713 new Covid-19 cases, bringing the total cumulative figures to 2,492,343.

Malaysia’s new cases hovered around the 4,000 level on Oct 31 (4,979) and Nov 1 (4,626). Recoveries stood at 5,865 cases yesterday, bringing the total cumulative figures to 2,396,244 (96.1 percent).

Below are the daily new cases during the week under review: Oct 30 (5,854), Oct 31 (4,979), Nov 1 (4,626), Nov 2 (5,071), Nov 3 (5,291) and Nov 4 (5,713).

MOH’s CovidNOW data as at 11.59 pm yesterday showed that active Covid-19 cases stood at 66,944.

With the cumulative figure of 2,492,343 cases, Malaysia now stood at the 20th spot in the list of 221 nations/territories struck by the Covid-19 pandemic. Just ahead of Malaysia is the Philippines (2,795,642) and South Africa (2,923,054).

As of yesterday, 519 patients required treatment at the intensive care unit (ICU) and 218 cases needed respiratory assistance.
Another 64 fatalities were registered yesterday, bringing total fatalities due to Covid-19 in the country to 29,155 cases.

Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said, of the 5,713 new cases reported yesterday, 93 (1.6 percent) were categories 3, 4 and 5 while 5,620 (98.4 percent) were categories 1 and 2.

According to MOH, category 5 is for critical cases requiring ventilators; category 4 is for patients needing oxygen assistance and category 3 is for patients with pneumonia. Category 1 is for patients who are asymptomatic and category 2 is for those with mild symptoms.

On the ‘spike protein Covid-19’ mutation in Malaysia, Dr Noor Hisham reported yesterday, a total of 1,047 new cases were Variants of Concern (VOC), comprising Delta variant cases (B.1.617.2).

This brings total cumulative cases infected by the SARS-CoV-2 categories as VOC and Variant of Interest (VOI) to 3,692 cases. Of the total cases, 3,672 were VOC and 20 were VOI.

Meanwhile, the daily R0 or Rt value during the week is still below 1.0. The Ro/rt as of yesterday was 0.94.

The breakdown is as follows:
Oct 30 (0.96), Oct 31 (0.95), Nov 1 (0.96), Nov 2 (0.95), Nov 3 (0.94) and Nov 4 (0.94). As of yesterday, Putrajaya recorded the highest RO/Rt value at 1.11 followed by Perlis (1.01), Selangor (1.01) and Melaka (1.01).

The R-Naught or R0/Rt value of a virus indicates the infectivity rate or the number of new infections generated by each case. An R0 value of 0.5 would be needed to flatten this deadly virus’ infection curve.

Other developments in the country

As of yesterday, total active clusters in the country fell further to 367, Overall, Malaysia recorded 5,793 Covid-19 clusters with 5,426 of them having ended.
During the week, total new clusters declined further to 30 as against 46 the previous week. Most of the new clusters this week were linked to the workplace (15, 50.0 percent) and education (6, 20.0 percent).
Of the total new daily cases of 5,713 reported yesterday (including 32 imported cases), the state-by-state breakdown of new cases (+imported cases) is as follows:
Four-digits – Selangor 1,338 (+6).
Three-digits – Johor 422, Kedah 355, Kelantan 484, Melaka 248 (+2), Negeri Sembilan 187 (+2), Pahang 310, Perak 210, Penang 340, Sabah 655, Sarawak 526 (+1), Terengganu 234 and Kuala Lumpur 253 (+22).
Two-digits – Putrajaya 55, Perlis 38 and Labuan 19.

Covid-19 scenario (Oct 30 – Nov 4)

The breakdown of active Covid-19 cases is as below:
Oct 30 (69,153), Oct 31 (67,969), Nov 1(67,233), Nov 2 (66,862), Nov 3 (67,160) and Nov 4 (66,944).
Following is the breakdown of Covid-19 patients based on their respective categories:
Of 5,854 new cases reported on Oct 30, 79 (1.3 percent) were categories 3, 4 and 5; and 5,775 (98.7 percent) were categories 1 and 2.
Of 4,979 new cases reported on Oct 31, 85 (1.7 percent) were categories 3, 4 and 5; and 4,894 (98.3 percent) were categories 1 and 2.
Of 4,626 new cases reported on Nov 1, 94 (2.0 percent) were categories 3, 4 and 5 and 4,532 (98.0 percent) were categories 1 and 2.
Of 5,071 new cases reported on Nov 2; 121 (2.4 percent) were categories 3, 4 and 5; and 4,950 (97.6 percent) were categories 1 and 2.
Of 5,291 new cases reported on Nov 3; 75 (1.4 percent) were categories 3, 4 and 5; and 5,216 (98.6 percent) were categories 1 and 2.
Of 5,713 new cases reported on Nov 4; 93 (1.6 percent) were categories 3, 4 and 5; and 5,620 (98.4 percent) were categories 1 and 2.
Following is the daily breakdown of recovered cases:
Oct 30 (6,715), Oct 31 (6,127), Nov 1 (5,299), Nov 2 (5,372), Nov 3 (4,947) and Nov 4 (5,865).

Cumulative recovered cases as of yesterday stood at 2,396,244 (96.1 percent).
Following is the daily breakdown of new cases, local transmissions and other related matters:
Oct 30 – New cases 5,854 (cumulative 2,466,663); Imported cases); Imported cases: 13 (8 citizens; 5 non-citizens); Local transmission: 5,841 [5,504 citizens (94.2 percent); 377 non-citizens (5.8 percent)];
Oct 31 – New cases 4,979 (cumulative 2,471,642); Imported cases: 23 (16 citizens (7 non-citizens); Local transmission: 4,596 [4,737 citizens (95.6 percent); 219 non-citizens (4.4 percent)];
Nov 1 – New cases 4,626 (cumulative 2,476,268); Imported cases: 6 (2 citizens; 4 non-citizens); 4,620 [4,440 citizens (96.1 percent); 180 non-citizens (3.9 percent)];
Nov 2 – New cases 5,071 (cumulative 2,481,339); Imported ases: 15 (12 citizens; 3 non-citizens); Local transmission: 5,056 [4,815 citizens (95.2 percent); 241 non-citizens (4.8 percent)];
Nov 3 – New cases 5,291 (cumulative 286,630); Imported cases: 7 (4 citizens; 3 non-citizens); Local transmission: 5,284 [4,998 citizens (94.6 percent); 286 non-citizens (5.4 percent)];
Nov 4 – New cases 5,713 (cumulative 2,492,343); Imported cases: 32 (12 citizens; 20 non-citizens); Local transmission 5,681 [5,392 citizens (94.9 percent); 289 non-citizens (5.1 percent)];