Sidang Khas Majlis Keselamatan Negara (MKN) Mengenai Pengurusan Covid-19 yang dipengerusikan oleh YAB Perdana Menteri petang tadi telah memutuskan untuk melaksanakan penutupan penuh sektor sosial dan ekonomi ataupun ‘total lockdown’ Fasa Pertama di seluruh negara bagi tempoh 14 hari bermula 1 Jun 2021 hingga 14 Jun 2021.
"Sepanjang tempoh ini, semua sektor tidak dibenarkan untuk beroperasi kecuali sektor ekonomi dan perkhidmatan perlu (essential economic and service sector) yang akan disenaraikan oleh Majlis Keselamatan Negara," kata kenyataan itu.
Tambah kenyataan itu, keputusan itu dibuat selepas mengambil kira situasi terkini penularan Covid-19 di Malaysia dengan jumlah kes harian telah melebihi 8,000 kes dan kes aktif melebihi 70,000 kes. Setakat hari ini, seramai 2,552 orang telah meninggal dunia akibat wabak ini dan jumlah kematian semakin meningkat.
"Kewujudan varian-varian baharu yang lebih ganas dengan kadar kebolehjangkitan yang tinggi dan pantas juga turut mempengaruhi keputusan hari ini.
"Dengan peningkatan kes-kes harian yang menunjukkan trend kenaikan secara lebih mendadak sejak mutakhir ini, kapasiti hospital di seluruh negara untuk merawat pesakit Covid-19 juga semakin terhad," katanya. - mk
All signs lead to more
covid cases and deaths...
LRT (Light Rail Transit) commuters today were being crammed in the packed trains like sardines. It was not possible to observe social distancing. Exactly what was the purpose of reducing the frequency LRT, MRT, monorails and buses by 50%, a brilliant plan which will definitely cause congestion, is beyond comprehension. It’s yet another spectacular failure.
But something both interesting and disturbing happened this morning. A female passenger suddenly collapsed. Astonishingly, all other passengers stepped away in concert instead of lending a hand to help the poor woman, something that never happened before. In normal circumstances, people would help each other as commuters who suddenly faint do happen occasionally.
Even during last year’s Coronavirus pandemic, commuters would not be as hard-hearted as today. So what changes? Apparently, people – regardless of race and religion – have reached the level where fears of getting infected with Covid-19 virus have outweighed their compassion helping others. That’s the cruel reality on the ground today, which the clueless government doesn’t understand.
If the government, especially the useless Transport Minister Wee Ka Siong, does not immediately increase the frequency of public transportation such as the LRT, then prepares for LRT clusters in the coming weeks. This is just one of many half-baked SOPs hatched by government officials who drove big and expensive cars to work, and never took public trains.
In yet another record, Malaysia registered 7,857 new cases today and 59 deaths, bringing the total cumulative Covid-19 cases to 541,224 and the death toll to 2,491. The patients in intensive care units (ICU) across the country also hit a new record – 771 ICU patients, a jump from yesterday’s 756. A whopping 392 out of 771 ICU patients require ventilators to breathe.
But there is more bad news. Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has again pressed the panic button. He revealed that between April 1 and May 26, manufacturing sector was the main contributor to workplace clusters – contributing 46%. Worse, despite MCO 3 lockdown starting on May 12, there isn’t any significant decline in workplace clusters.
That means more than 2 weeks after the half-baked lockdown was introduced, it has failed to reduce the workplace clusters. Between May 12 and May 26 alone, a total of 115 workplace clusters with 5,392 Covid cases were reported. Nationwide, workplace contributes nearly 17,000 active Coronavirus cases. Every week, manufacturing sector creates 21 to 25 clusters.
Therefore, it’s safe to say there is almost zero compliance to health SOPs in the manufacturing sector from the beginning. Yet, because it is the second largest sector, which contributed 22.3% to GDP, the Muhyiddin government has chosen to close one eye even if the manufacturing sector continuously violates the SOP.
Dr Noor also unveiled that at least 5 out of 20 new Covid clusters recorded today are linked to house-to-house visits during the recent Hari Raya Aidilfitri festival. Interestingly, two days ago, Health Minister Dr Adham Baba admitted that interstate and inter-district travel during Ramadan and the Hari Raya festive period are the reasons behind the spike in Coronavirus cases.
At least 40 Covid-19 clusters related to religious activities happened throughout the fasting month until the Hari Raya celebration. But who was the one who gave the green light to hold Ramadan bazaars, interstate and inter-district travel, and reopening of mosques without strict SOP compliance? What’s the point crying over spilt milk now, when people had repetitively warned about it earlier?
To make matters worse, despite having spent RM70 million on a website, the voluntary AstraZeneca vaccination programme was overwhelmed yesterday. Today, it was discovered that people who did not register had somehow received the vaccination appointment, while those who tried till they almost broke their fingers clicking on the mouse had failed to secure any slot.
To pacify angry citizens, Vaccine Minister Khairy Jamaluddin announced that people may soon be able to choose the vaccine of their choice. But why was such a basic option not implemented in the Sejahtera app in the first place? Programmers paid RM70 million could easily implement a drop-down option showing all types of vaccines available, but greyed them temporarily.
After months of empty talks and promises since December last year, Mr Khairy said today Malaysia will receive 25.6 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech vaccine in the third quarter of this year. This is on top of an additional agreement of 12.8 million doses signed by Health Minister Dr Adham Baba with the vaccine manufacturer on May 21. So, there will be a total 44.8 million doses of Pfizer vaccine.
The question is – why a sudden new agreement to buy more Pfizer vaccine now when it should have been done last year. Was it not Khairy who issued chest-thumping promises since last December that there will be enough Covid vaccine for everyone? With the new procurement, does this mean the corrupt ministers will put their hands in the cookie jar again, after hijacked RM8 billion to do so earlier?
On 28 Feb, the country received 200 litres of CoronaVac vaccine, which can be processed into 300,000 doses. Today, Pharmaniaga, the country’s biggest pharmaceutical company, has in its possession 1,800 litres of China’s Sinovac vaccine, which can produce up to 2.6 million doses. So, what happens to the almost 3 million doses of Chinese vaccine?
Curiously, Khairy also announced today that based on the latest discussions between Sinovac Biotech and Pharmaniaga Bhd, China would ship 12 million doses of vaccine from the manufacturer in Beijing in June and July. Are these new purchases? Has the genius Pharmaniaga even processed and delivered all the 3 million doses of CoronaVac vaccine to the people?
It appears that the backdoor government has been busy buying tens of millions of doses of vaccines every now and then, but for unknown reason always complains about short of supply. As of 25 May, only 1,731,231 people received at least 1 dose of Covid-19 vaccine and 999,305 people are fully vaccinated. Where the heck had all the vaccines gone?
At the current rate of death toll and vaccination, thousands more people will die between now and July. Someone should demand for an audit to all the vaccine procurement so far. The Math simply doesn’t add up. While taxpayers’ money to the tune of RM8 billion are gone, the vaccines magically disappear or missing from the inventory every day.
Like it or not, King Sultan Abdullah of Pahang must speak up. He can’t keep quiet forever, pretending that everything in the garden is rosy. The monarch should not underestimate the general public’s frustration and anger over the selected elite groups – ministers, monarch, celebrities, families and friends – who have jumped the queue for the vaccines, leaving the ordinary people to fend for themselves.
Even Sultan Ibrahim of Johor, known for his support for Mahiaddin alias Muhyiddin last March as the new backdoor prime minister, has called for the government to consider a “full lockdown”. The Sultanate of Johor has made known its disagreement with how the incompetent Muhyiddin administration handles and manages the pandemic.
It was already bad that people do not feel any direct or spill over economic effect of RM660 billion, being the various stimulus packages totalling RM340 billion and RM322 billion allocation for the national budget. It’s worse that despite a State of Emergency as well as locking up the Parliament under the pretext of fighting Coronavirus, the pandemic has not gotten any better.
Despite having been warned, the Agong (King) consented on January 12 to Muhyiddin’s request to the Proclamation of Emergency. On that day, the country only recorded 2,985 new Covid-19 infections. Today, it’s more than doubled to 7,857 cases. In the same breath, the death toll has jumped 15 times, when there were only 4 fatalities on January 12.
The monarch should seriously express his displeasure over the mishandling and mismanagement of both the economy and pandemic. In fact, the King could easily rally support from Member of Parliaments to pressure the prime minister to resign, after which a more capable premier can be appointed. A Malay Ruler is supposed to protect the people, not a clueless and incompetent regime.
After all, Muhyiddin doesn’t seem to mind people calling him a stupid prime minister. If even the leader of the country has admitted his stupidity, wouldn’t it be silly for Sultan Abdullah to protect him? The country is on autopilot – unemployment and underemployment are skyrocketing, the economy is sagging, national coffer is drying, money is disappearing and foreign debts are increasing. - FT
cheers.
Sumber asal: Total lockdown atau stepdown...
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