Kit Siang: Special parliamentary meeting should be called by Cabinet to discuss Covid-19 third wave

KUALA LUMPUR, Dec 30-  Iskandar Puteri MP Lim Kit Siang today called on the Cabinet to set up a special sitting of Dewan Rakyat in January to test the “runaway” third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic here.

The DAP veteran said in a statement today that the 1,925 new Covid-19 cases registered in the country yesterday placed Malaysia as 35th among the world’s countries with the highest daily rise in Covid-19 cases.

“To address the runaway situation in the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic with a new ‘all-of-government’ and ‘whole-of-society’ strategy and to set up a Select Committee on the Covid-19 pandemic, the last Cabinet meeting of the year today should attempt to correct its errors in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic and should convene a special Parliament in January 2021.“

Lim said the topic should be at the top of the Cabinet’s agenda today, and a new plan should be revealed after its meeting to get the third wave of the Covid-19 pandemic under power.

He said Malaysia is now among the worst-hit Asean countries, pointing out that Thailand, Singapore, Vietnam, Cambodia and Laos have exceeded the number of Covid-19 cases here.

What went wrong with Malaysia’s public health system, as the country should be one of the best, rather than one of the worst in Asean.

“In Malaysia’s fight against Covid-19, health experts are calling for a different strategy to avoid further strain on the public health system,” he said.

The Ministry of Health announced yesterday that since the introduction of the coronavirus in Malaysia, 108,615 individuals have been infected with Covid-19.

This exceeds the 58,542 cases in Singapore; 6,440 in Thailand; 1,454 in Vietnam; 364 in Cambodia; and 41 in Laos. Malaysia currently also has a higher infection rate of Covid-19 than Myanmar and the Philippines.