DAP Secretary General Lim Guan Eng speaks to the press regarding the Inland Revenue Board (LHDN) during the press conference here at Wisma DAP, Jalan Rangoon on March 8th. — Picture courtesy of Malay Mail
KUCHING (July 25): The Democratic Action Party (DAP) has come up with its policy position paper ‘Gearing Malaysia Towards Living With Covid-19’ to take Malaysia forward amid this pandemic.
Its secretary-general Lim Guan Eng pointed out that the virus is expected to coexist within the community in the long haul, especially with the existence and increasing dominance of mutating Covid-19 variants.
As such, he said the DAP proposed a paradigm shift away from the pandemic management aim of “Zero Covid-19” and total lockdowns to one of “Living with Covid-19” and targeted lockdowns.
“For example, we have to recognise a situation with 25,000 Covid-19 positive cases with no intensive care unit (ICU) patients or deaths, is a far better outcome than 5,000 positive cases with 100 in ICU and 20 deaths.
“What is prioritised are not measures which will necessarily reduce total infections, but measures which will drastically reduce the number of severe Covid-19 cases and death,” he said in a statement today.
Lim, who is Bagan MP, said the ‘new normal’ was not about living with perpetual lockdowns in their various forms but on how Malaysia can adopt measures to minimise and mitigate the presence and impact of Covid-19 within the community while reopening most, if not all of the social and economic activities.
“At the same time, we will build our individual and healthcare resilience to reduce death and cases requiring ICU treatment,” he added.
To enable ‘Living with Covid-19’, he said the DAP proposed to control and mitigate the current wave of infections, enhance readiness to meet future outbreaks, open up the social and economic sectors with safety catches, and have medium-term strategies on dealing with the pandemic.
He said these recommendations will serve as essential building blocks to pave the way ahead for longer term structural reforms that Malaysia urgently needs.
Lim, who is former finance minister, said total lockdowns had a devastating effect on the country’s economy with estimated losses since the first Movement Control Order (MCO 1.0) until now of at least RM500 billion.
He pointed out that the economy contracted by 5.6 per cent last year and the government was forced to scale down its overly optimistic gross domestic product (GDP) growth projections from as high as 7.5 per cent to four per cent.
“The damaging economic impact on the ground has ravaged the lives of many Malaysian households who cannot make ends meet.”
Yesterday, Malaysia notched another record with 15,902 positive Covid-19 cases out of 155,193 test samples, giving a positivity rate of 10.25 per cent.
For the week ending July 24, there was a daily average 12,935 positive Covid-19 cases detected out of 123,810 test samples, with an average positivity rate of 10.45 per cent.
“This represents a continued deterioration from the prior week ending July 17, with a daily average of 11,237 positive cases out of 120,165 test samples, and an average positivity rate of 9.35 per cent,” he said.
He opined that the infection rate showed no signs of receding, alongside a positivity rate that remained well above the World Health Organisation’s (WHO) five per cent threshold.
“More worryingly, the daily death rate also hovers at or near record highs, reaching a seven-day average of 133.9 on July 21. Adjusted for population, Malaysia now ranks 22nd in the world in terms of daily confirmed Covid-19 deaths at 4.14 per million people, far exceeding the G20 and Asean averages,” he said.
While the MCO 1.0 initiated March last year was to enhance capacities of the country’s public healthcare infrastructure, extensions and subsequent lockdowns were conducted to eliminate virus transmissions, Lim said these intermittent lockdowns had now proven ineffective, especially once the virus had achieved a certain critical mass in the community.
As a result, the healthcare system had been stretched to its limit, with insufficient capacity forcing Covid-19 patients to be treated on the floor or in corridors of some hospitals, he said.
“The DAP is ready to play our part of the ‘Whole of Society, All of Government’ campaign to ensure Malaysians can successfully transition to the ‘new normal’ by ‘Living with Covid-19’.
“The nation must recover from the disastrous management of the pandemic that has resulted in record-breaking infection and death rates we are experiencing today,” he said.