MP sounds alarm over Johor’s Covid-19 situation, wants govt’s urgent action

MP sounds alarm over Johor’s Covid-19 situation, wants govt’s urgent action

Bakri MP Yeo Bee Yin has urged the government to increase the healthcare system’s capacity and ramp up the vaccination in Johor amid increasing Covid-19 cases and deaths in the state.

She pointed out that the intensive care unit (ICU) usage capacity in Johor has already reached 90 percent while the state continues to have one of the lowest full vaccination rates in the country.

“It is very worrying to see an increasing trend of positive cases and Covid-19-related deaths in Johor from mid-July until now, despite a drop in ICU cases in the past two weeks. The different trends of ICU and death numbers are probably due to more brought-in-dead cases.

“Johor's full vaccination rate is still one of the lowest in the country despite it being one of the most industrialised states outside of Klang Valley.

“There is a need to look thoroughly into Johor’s Covid-19 situation by increasing ICU capacity in locations that are running out of ICU beds.

“In addition, I call upon the government to double or even triple up the vaccination rate in Johor before it is too late,” Yeo (above) said in a statement today.

She said she has already alerted the Health Ministry, the Covid-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF) and the Johor government about the dire state of the Covid-19 situation in the state earlier this month.

“But so far, there’s no concerted effort seen. Hopefully, the new Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin will pay more attention to Johor’s Covid-19 situation,” Yeo said, adding that she hopes the federal government will not marginalise Johorians in the fight against the pandemic.

As of midnight Aug 27, only 31.5 percent of the total population in Johor had been fully vaccinated.

Meanwhile, Johor has seen an average of 47 deaths a day in the past seven days.