Month: June 2021

— The view expressed by the Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah that Parliament should reconvene as soon as possible and that the government should accelerate the COVID-19 vaccination process is in line with the government’s ongoing efforts said Pas Deputy President Datuk Seri Tuan Ibrahim Tuan Man.

Tuan Ibrahim said Pas also upholds His Majesty’s statement on the importance of having a stable and strong government to effectively deal with COVID-19 and revive the country’s economy, besides emphasising that all parties should reduce politicking so the government can focus on tackling the COVID-19 outbreak.

“His Majesty’s views on the parliamentary session are in line with the government’s commitment to hold a parliamentary session as stated by the Prime Minister.

“PAS is confident in the efforts and commitment of the federal government which has managed to provide over 200,000 COVID-19 vaccine injections consistently per day. It is a yardstick in achieving the target of vaccinating 80 per cent of the people by the end of this year,” he said in a statement today.

“The concern of His Majesty and the Malay Rulers should be viewed seriously by the people to ensure Malaysia is free from COVID-19,” he said.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

— Sarawak is not going to rest on its laurels even though it was acknowledged as the nation’s leading state in terms of administering COVID-19 vaccination, said Sarawak Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.

Uggah who is also State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman said a total of 55,248 individuals have been vaccinated in the state yesterday, the highest number of vaccinations dispensed among the states in the nation, just a day after the number of those received the vaccine jab hit 49,000 in Sarawak.

“We still have room for improvement to ensure all the eligible 2.2 million Sarawakians are fully vaccinated by August this year. We have organised our infrastructure two months ago and is in a very active mode in rolling out our vaccination programme statewide,” he said in a statement today.

He said National COVID-19 Immunisation Programme Coordinating Minister Khairy Jamaluddin had congratulated the state on this achievement and pledged that more shipments of vaccines would be coming to Sarawak.

“We are very thankful to our Chief Minister Datuk Patinggi Abang Johari Tun Openg who has been very supportive and even set aside funds for us to buy our own vaccine. We have led the way in the nation and should be very proud of our accomplishment,” he said.

Uggah said even though the task ahead remained challenging, it is important to be accomplished as vaccination is the way out of the danger posed by COVID-19, as proven in countries like United Kingdom and United States.

Although the state had a sluggish start in the exercise due to the delay in getting the vaccine supply, he said shipments from Kuala Lumpur have been more constant now to enable the vaccination to be carried out.

“I am very grateful to Khairy and Putrajaya (Federal Government) for listening to us and helping us (to get the vaccine supply),” he added.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

The Ministry of Health (MOH) has given assurance that all individuals who have registered for vaccination in the MySejahtera app will be given appointment dates to receive the vaccine.

As such, Deputy Minister Datuk Dr Noor Azmi Ghazali said the public need not worry about that as the government had secured adequate access to the vaccine and the next batch expected to arrive in July would be in a large quantity.

“As long as their names are there (in MySejahtera), they need not worry…all will get the vaccine because we are not only targeting that 80 per cent of the people will be vaccinated, we want foreign workers too to be vaccinated,” he told reporters after visiting the vaccination centre (PPV) at the Pantai Hospital here today.

Dr Noor Azmi said this when asked about the concern of the public on not getting the appointment dates despite having registered in MySejahtera for quite some time.

He also expressed confidence that the vaccination rate could be accelerated between next month and August as targeted by the government.

Dr Noor Azmi also said that the government had secured the CanSino one-shot vaccine which would be given to residents in rural and remote areas who were having difficulties going to the PPV.

Meanwhile, Dr Noor Azmi also urged all private hospitals, private general practitioners (GP) and private specialist hospitals to register as PPV.

He said the national target was to have 75 private hospitals operating as PPV this month but only 67 were operational to date including seven in Penang.

“Indeed, we are urging more private hospitals and GP to come forward and help the government in the national immunisation programme,” he added.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

The quality of olein cooking oil in one kg polybags sold in the local market meets the prescribed quality and not recycled, said Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB) director-general Dr Ahmad Parveez Ghulam Kadir.

He said the price of cooking oil in polybags was controlled by the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry, therefore the retail price could not exceed RM2.50.

“The perception that subsidised cooking oil in polybags is of lower quality is wrong. The price is subsidised and controlled by the government, hence it is cheaper than the price of bottled cooking oil in the market,” he said in a statement today.

He explained that the subsidy kept the price of cooking oil in polybags at RM2.50 despite the increase in the price of crude palm oil in the market, and it was aimed at reducing the burden of consumers to get cooking oil at an affordable price.

“This targeted subsidy is for consumers who buy cooking oil in one kg polybags for personal use, especially the low-income group.

“Whereas bottled cooking oil of various brands offers an option to middle- and upper-class consumers who are willing to pay a higher price,” he said.

Elaborating, Ahmad Parveez said there are 49 refineries and 312 packaging companies that are actively operating for the supply of cooking oil to the local market which is estimated at one million tonnes a year.

He said MPOB conducted monitoring and testing of cooking oil samples in the market on a regular basis and found that the quality and important characteristics were in line with the criteria set by the Department of Standards Malaysia.

He said it comprised oleic acid content, colour and essential qualities including polar and polymer compounds, oxidative stability index and vitamin E (tocotrienols and tocopherols).

In 2020, Malaysia produced 19.14 million tonnes of crude palm oil and the consumption of olein cooking oil for the local market accounted for only 4.1 per cent of the country’s total crude palm oil production.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

The government’s efforts in implementing Movement Control Order (MCO) 3.0 or total lockdown has shown positive signs and reduced the infectivity rate or COVID-19 R-naught (Rt) in the country.

Senior Minister, who is also International Trade and Industry Minister, Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali said following the projection of the Ministry of Health (MOH) recently, the daily COVID-19 cases in the country could have exceeded 13,000 cases on June 14 if the restriction had not been implemented.

“We succeeded in lowering (the number of new COVID-19 cases) to 4,949 cases on June 14.

“Why did this happen? Because of the firm action taken by the government in implementing the total lockdown. This is already a success in containing the spread of the pandemic,” he told a media conference after visiting the industrial vaccination centre at the Austin International Convention Centre (AICC) here, today.

He said this when asked to comment on the statements of several quarters who claimed that the implementation of MCO 3.0 since June 1 would not be successful in reducing the number of COVID-19 cases.

Asked about the government’s efforts in controlling workplace cluster, Mohamed Azmin said among the measures to reduce the proliferation of COVID-19 was by implementing MCO 3.0 aimed at reducing people’s movement.

“This has been repeatedly explained by MOH that we should take more stringent measures to control movement with strict standard operating procedures (SOP) to ensure people’s health and their well-being is looked after,” he said.

Commenting on the vaccination centre at AICC under the Public-Private Partnership Industrial COVID-19 Immunisation Programme (PIKAS), he said the vaccination centre was the second in Johor and would start operating on June 28.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency

The Sarawak State Disaster Management Committee (JPBN) and the Sarawak Health Department (JKNS) are reviewing the latest procedures for entry into the state from abroad for those who have already undergone mandatory quarantine during transit in Peninsular Malaysia.

JPBN, in a statement today, said that it was due to several amendments made by the Health Ministry (MOH) as well as changes in procedures related to quarantine and COVID-19 screening test for travellers and crew arriving through Malaysia’s international gateway.

According to the latest MOH procedures, all travellers from abroad are required to undergo the COVID-19 RT-PCR test and mandatory quarantine for 14 days (21 days if coming from India, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh) before being allowed to travel to other states, and to comply with the entry procedures set by the respective states.

The statement said that until further decisions are made, all travellers from abroad who wish to enter Sarawak must comply with the latest instructions from the MOH.

“For those who have completed the mandatory quarantine period and the swab test on the 10th day is negative, they have to enter Sarawak within 24 hours and will be quarantined until the following swab test in Sarawak is negative,” according to the statement.

Meanwhile, JKNS announced that two new clusters were detected in Kuching today, namely the Kampung Sungai Agas cluster and the Jalan Sungai Tapang cluster.

The Kampung Sungai Agas cluster is a community cluster that was detected in a settlement in Jalan Matang near here, which was caused by cross-district movement and close contact after attending a funeral of a close relative in Sri Aman, about 200 km from Kuching.

“A total of 30 individuals were screened, 16 of which tested positive for COVID-19 including the index case while six cases are still awaiting results,” the statement read.

The Jalan Sungai Tapang cluster is a workplace cluster that involves a private cleaning company in Jalan Stapang near here, which was caused by social movements and close contact among employees and family members.

According to the statement, a total of 236 individuals were screened in which 31 cases were confirmed positive for COVID-19 including the index case, 199 cases were found negative and six cases are still awaiting results.

Sarawak today recorded 536 new COVID-19 cases, bringing the cumulative positive cases to 58,570, while the death toll rose to 373 after seven new deaths were reported.

Source: BERNAMA News Agency