Malaysia has recorded over 12,000 deaths due to Covid-19 over the past five months. — Picture by Shafwan Zaidon
KUALA LUMPUR, Feb 10 — DAP lawmaker Lim Kit Siang urged the Health Ministry (MoH) to set up a special committee comprising public health experts to bring down the number of fatalities due to Covid-19.
The Iskandar Puteri MP said that despite the Omicron variant having a lower mortality rate compared to the Delta variant, Malaysia has recorded over 12,000 deaths due to Covid-19 for the past five months.
“Although the Omicron variant has taken over the Delta variant with a lower mortality rate, there were 1,062 Covid-19 deaths in December, 498 deaths in January and 80 deaths in February.
“The government should regard the Covid-19 mortality rate as completely unacceptable and I call on the Health Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin to urgently set up a special committee of public health experts including representatives from the private sector to reduce the Covid-19 mortality rate,” he said in a statement this morning.
Three days ago, Khairy said that the Omicron wave that has officially hit Malaysia is expected to peak at the end of March.
He said that this was the MoH’s best estimation to date as it continues to monitor the rise in Covid-19 cases.
Last week, Khairy also reminded the public that the severity of Covid-19 cases in Malaysia is currently the prime concern for MoH following the emergence of the Omicron variant rather than the number of daily infections.
He added that hospital admissions, intensive care units (ICU) cases, and fatality index are the main indicators to decide whether more public health regulations will be eased up in the future.