MP SPEAKS | Penang can be a model of a whole-of-society approach, where both federal and state governments pool resources and manpower to work together with 1.7 million Penangites to win the war against Covid-19, by mitigating Covid-19 while living normal lives.

The federal government’s previous policy of containment to eliminate Covid-19 failed miserably due to non-compliance with SOPs by ministers and VIPs, policy U-turns, and double-standards in enforcement between the ordinary rakyat and ministers.

Nothing highlights such abject failure more than the complete abandonment of the four-phase National Recovery Plan of the previous prime minister Muhyiddin Yassin, where the country is moving out of the various phases even though daily infections have not gone below 4,000 cases.

Both Muhyiddin and partially the current Prime Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob, have to bear responsibility for the inability to follow a whole-of-society approach to unite all parties, including the opposition and the people, to battle Covid-19.

A whole-of-society approach was introduced in Penang when Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin agreed with my suggestion to appoint Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim Chee Keong as the Penang Covid-19 Coordinator on Sept 11.

Penang had recorded the highest Covid-19 deaths and even daily cases per capita in the country for more than one month.

The ICU bed and ventilator utilisation then exceeded 100 percent and there was no response to the desperate cries for help from Covid-19 patients and their family members.

There were many tragic stories of Covid-19 patients just dying without getting the required treatment or ICU beds.

Medical professionals have said that one of the causes of the high death rate was the lack of medical facilities, especially ICU beds, to give timely treatment to Covid-19 patients.

Penang not only became a red spot for Covid-19 but also a frightened state without help or hope.

In the past three weeks since Sim’s appointment and the integration of both federal and state governments’ efforts, Penang has shown progress in our fight against Covid-19.

Average daily cases and the total number of deaths are reducing substantially for three consecutive weeks.

From 1,865 positive cases three weeks ago on Sept 11, Penang daily cases have finally dropped to three-digit numbers beginning Sept 26 at 955 cases and continuing to drop until 768 cases on Oct 2.

The positivity rate has also improved tremendously from almost 20 percent on Sept 11 to 7.5 percent on Sept 29. We are now much closer to the 5 percent standard recommended by the World Health Organisation for adequate testing.

Similarly, the number of deaths due to Covid-19 has also reduced, from the record high 47 reported deaths on Sept 9 to 18 yesterday on Oct 2.

Reference to ICU bed utilisation is now attended to unlike in the past. Failure to provide ICU beds for Category 5 patients is no different from giving a death sentence.

Extra 22 ICU beds in three weeks saved lives, 20 more coming

While no additional ICU beds were added when our Covid-19 cases started to rise in late July, 22 ICU beds were added after aggressive intervention by Sim as well as Penang state executive councillor Phee Boon Poh.

Phee was appointed chief of the Penang Emergency Response Team by Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow on Sept 11.

All this was possible due to the quick and effective measures implemented in the past three weeks.

The measures included ramping up our healthcare capacity by building a field hospital, setting up more Covid-19 beds as well as ICU beds, mobilisation of more medical personnel and equipment to support the increased workload, more quarantine facilities, and faster response time.

I was informed that about 20 more ICU beds will be added in the coming weeks. Each ICU bed costs between RM500,000 to RM1,000,000 and requires heavy medical manpower.

While there has been progress, Penang is still not safe yet. DAP urges the federal government to expedite resources to strengthen our healthcare system so that we can effectively implement the find, test, trace, isolate, and support (FTTIS) mechanism for Covid-19.

The federal government should also speed up the creation of more ICU facilities, including pediatric ICU in Penang.

Even though cases are reducing, we must learn the lesson from neighbouring countries experiencing a new wave of Covid-19 cases. Our healthcare system must be on standby to quickly deal with any future rise in Covid-19 cases.

We cannot go through another round where a slow turnaround response will cause untold suffering and even death.

LIM GUAN ENG is Bagan MP and DAP secretary-general.

The views expressed here are those of the author/contributor and do not necessarily represent the views of Malaysiakini.