Chong Chieng Jen
KUCHING (Sept 27): The Sarawak Democratic Action Party (DAP) has asked the state government to explain why the state continues to record the highest number of new Covid-19 cases in the country when it has among the nation’s highest vaccination rate.
Claiming that the state also had among the highest intensive care unit occupancy rate in the country, the party’s chairman Chong Chieng Jen said the numbers do not reconcile with the state government’s claim that it was doing well in managing the pandemic.
“If truly the vaccination works, why do we still have such a high number of cases and why are there still so many Covid-19 patients admitted to ICUs as compared to the other states in the country?,” he said in a statement.
“What makes the matter worse is that the reported positive figures for the last few weeks are likely to be the understatement of the actual situation on the ground because since September, the state government has adopted the new policy of not doing any testing on those close contacts who have no symptoms,” he said.
With reduced testing, Chong said one would have expected positive cases to drop drastically but Sarawak remains the state with the highest number of new positive Covid-19 cases for most days in September.
“It seems that, despite the so-called (health) autonomy, the Gabungan Parti Sarawak (GPS) state government has totally lost control of the situation and is not sure what strategy or direction to move the state forward.
“As the leader of the state, Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg cannot continue to push the responsibilities to his deputies. He must come forth to provide the people with a full explanation of the current dire situation and a clear strategy to tackle the problem.
“With the current pandemic situation, there is no point for Abang Johari to talk about 2030 when many businesses are finding it hard to survive the next 6 months,” he said.
In order for Sarawak to open up its economy, Chong said the state government must step up Covid-19 testing and contact tracing by organising more teams and places for testing instead of gathering people in large groups.
Aside from that, he said the state government should step up its quarantine and medical facilities and that the government must act quickly to achieve that.
He said the state government should also provide prompt, sufficient and clear support to businesses, big, small and micro businesses, in the state.
“To achieve that, the chief minister should be hands-on with the current predicament of the local businesses and not keep talking about his idea of Sarawak 2030,” he said.