KUCHING: The country needs to prepare for an Omicron surge quickly instead of waiting for the medical system to collapse first in view of the emergence of the Covid-19 variant.
Bintulu MP Datuk Seri Tiong King Sing, in giving the advice, questioned whether Minister of Health Khairy Jamaluddin had a clear strategy to meet a worst case scenario or was he still adopting a ‘one step at a time’ attitude right now.
“Now is not the time to display some kind of personal political wisdom. We must see the trend of the pandemic and call on the people to strictly abide by the Covid-19 standard operating procedures (SOPs) to prevent a widespread transmission,” he said in a Facebook post on Sunday (Jan 9 ).
Most importantly, Tiong added, the authorities must review past experiences in fighting the Covid-19 pandemic by appropriately managing resources now such as scheduling medical staff, wards, equipment and others in advance.
“I have repeatedly stated that we must be proactive instead of reactive by making long-term plans for this drawn-out war. We should not be put in a situation of scrambling to find resources and formulate countermeasures at the last minute.
“Particularly with the MOH’s budget for 2021 and 2022. All have been allocated more than RM30 billion, the second largest after the Ministry of Education (MOE). But now people are asking what these allocations are actually used for. Do they improve the medical system or equipment in each hospital?” he asked.
“As we are all aware, the Omicron is highly transmissible, six times more than the Delta variant, and as of Jan 6, Malaysia had recorded 245 cases of Omicron; 233 of these were imported cases and 12 local transmissions.
“With the shortage of hospital beds, the occupancy rate in Selangor hospitals has reached 68.9 percent. Has the MOH drawn up a backup plan to prevent a collapse of our medical system? Will there be another series of helpless isolations and home surveillance happening again soon?” Tiong asked.
He also questioned why Malaysia had not adopted more anti-epidemic strategies from China and why the health director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah had not been replaced yet.
“When Malaysia reported its first confirmed imported case on Dec 2, last year, Khairy gave his assurance at the press conference that Malaysia’s pandemic prevention measures were rigorous and appealed to everyone to remain calm. Even better, he told everyone that he had a plan to take care of it. But in a span of a month, his tune has changed to estimating cases to soar to 30,000 daily cases.
“During the pandemic that has raged for more than two years, we do not see the MOH has any more strong ideas to suppress the disease.
“Worse, it seems to have relaxed and put its guard down, the wind gone from its sails in this fight. Travellers returning from overseas are now allowed to quarantine at home instead of being strictly monitored in quarantine hotels.
“It is because the authorities did not seriously carry out the testing work. This led to Omicron taking hold in Malaysia,” he said.
Tiong, who is also the Dudong assemblyman, said that with the Lunar New Year coming, the MOH and Prime Minister must take this matter much more seriously, including putting in more effective strategies to deal with the Omicron menace.
“We can no longer afford another comprehensive lockdown that puts the people on the edge of survival.
“But we must deeply think and review the negatives and drawbacks of the current SOPs and make true adjustments that protect the lives and health of our people,” he said.
