Bernama file photo for illustration purposes only.
KUCHING (May 17): The Health and Sciences Covid-19 Advisory Group of Experts (EAG) has brushed off several suggestions saying that it should ‘take over’ the pandemic response leadership at the Ministry of Health (MOH).
The group in a statement yesterday said MOH has been at the centre of the struggle to control the Covid-19 pandemic in the country, pointing out that EAG was established on Feb 8 this year to provide evidence-based advice to the ministry on Covid-19 management in Malaysia.
“The EAG serves to complement MOH’s pandemic strategy-setting and support public health best practices that will allow Malaysia to exit the pandemic as quickly as possible.
“To these aims, we have been meeting with MOH leaders since our formation and will continue to collaborate closely with all relevant stakeholders to derive immediate as well as medium-to-long-term plans for managing Covid-19 in Malaysia,” it added.
EAG pointed out that it was ably supported by a network of critical Technical Working Groups (TWG) comprising of medical, healthcare and industry experts who can be consulted on an ad-hoc basis.
EAG listed seven main TWG, namely the Public-private partnership (Hospital-based care); Public-private partnership (Primary care providers); Public health (Find, Test, Trace, Isolate and Support System); Data and technology; Vaccines; Strategic Communications; and Covid-19 Frontliners and Healthcare Worker Welfare.
“With this network of support, we hope to inspire a true, coordinated whole-of-society effort for beating Covid-19.
“As the pandemic continues to rage on at an alarming rate, we must stay focused on the shared goal of saving lives and livelihoods,” said EAG.