Liu Thian Leong
KUCHING (Aug 5): Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) Batu Kitang branch chairman Liu Thian Leong has urged the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) to deliberate the Covid-19 situation in the state first before accepting any decision by the federal government.
He said the situation in Sarawak, particularly in Kuching, Samarahan and Serian divisions, has not gotten any better, with the three divisions contributing to an average daily number of new Covid-19 cases at 392 as of Aug 4, compared to the whole state at 507.
“This showed that 77.3 per cent of all new positive cases in Sarawak came from Kucing, Samarahan and Serian divisions.
“Further more, out of the 17 areas put under Enhance Movement Control Order (EMCO) lockdown, 15 areas are in these three divisions, the other two are in the adjacent areas of Sri Aman and Simunjan,” he said in a statement today.
Apart from that Liu pointed out that the reports by Prof Dr David Perera, who is director of Unimas’ Institute of Health and Community Medicine (IHCM) shows that 50.7 per cent of the new cases sequenced as of July 27 are Delta variants too.
Liu also said that the Delta variant was first discovered in December 2020 in India and it soon swept rapidly through India and United Kingdom and then to the United States.
By July, it has accounted for 80 per cent of the new Covid-19 cases in the United States.
“The same is happening in Malaysia now because it is sweeping through the kampongs enclosing the cities and towns. Soon the whole nation will succumb to it,” he said.
Although people have actually begun to feel cautiously optimistic that the pandemic would recede as more and more people are vaccinated, he said the Delta variant, however, has virtually brought the pandemic back in greater velocity and harm because it can infect people young and old alike even after they have been vaccinated.
“As scientists have yet to discover the most effective treatments for the new variant, people can only rely on vaccination as well as preventive measures to curb the disease,” said Liu
Hence he opined that the government should play the important role of maintaining sound public health facilities, providing material aids and education on public health and personal hygiene, particularly to the country folks in these severely infected divisions.
“Besides, stringent standard operating procedures should be drawn up and strictly enforced too.
“It is hope that the pandemic could be brought under control so the economy of Sarawak can be truly on track to revival and growth,” he said.