By Christopher Lidom
KUCHING, Jan 7: “Kuching, by tomorrow, will definitely be (Covid-19) orange (zone) because there are so many cases every day, but I hope we will never reach red,” says State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) advisor Datuk Seri Dr Sim Kui Hian.
In saying this, he highlighted the worsening Covid-19 situation in Sarawak lately whereby several longhouses have been affected like in Meradong, Kapit and Sri Aman, and this had not happened in the state before.
Hoping to bring a stop to this crisis, he urged for all Sarawakians to work together in stopping the chain of transmission of this novel coronavirus.
This is to prevent Sarawak from being selected as one of the states to implement a targeted version of the Movement Control Order (MCO) as the country’s health system reaches the state of a breaking point.
This proposal was announced by Health Ministry director-general Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdulllah yesterday (Jan 6) in hopes to reduce strain on hospitals across the nation.
“Breaking point means the hospitals have no more rooms for Covid-19 patients and if we don;t do anything about it, the hospitals will ‘collapse’.
“So, that’s why there are talks in various media about this targeted MCO. It means we might be going back to MCO and not CMCO (Conditional Movement Control Order).
“Targeted refers to the places in trouble where the hospitals no longer have enough beds, nurses and doctors. These states will need MCO,” explained Dr Sim when addressing the press during the offer letter handover ceremony of low-cost houses at Kampung Bunga Rampai, Bau today.
Adding on, he made a remark that he, too, has no idea when or how long will this targeted MCO be, but he expressed hopes that Sarawak will never ever go into that situation.—DayakDaily
