By Olivia Miwil - February 1, 2021 @ 6:52pm
KOTA KINABALU: The government should allocate at least another RM5 billion to fight the Covid-19 pandemic and facilitate the country's economic revival.
Parti Warisan Sabah president Datuk Seri Mohd Shafie Apdal said the funds should be used to conduct mass screenings, tracking, vaccination and the recruitment of more health personnel.
He said following two weeks of the Movement Control Order (MCO 2.0), the Finance Ministry has put the estimated cost of the lockdown at RM600 million a day, whereby the country has an accumulated loss of RM8.5 billion or 0.05 per cent of the gross domestic product.
"A new study has shown that the slowdown in economic activities during this pandemic is due to people's concern over the infectivity of the coronavirus, which limits movements and exacerbates the (economic) situation.
"Taking a lesson from other countries, (they) conducted screening tests and comprehensive contact tracing before vaccination was conducted," said the Semporna Member of Parliament in a statement.
The World Health Organisation has suggested that the Covid-19 positive test rate should be below 5 per cent for a continuous long period as an indicator that the pandemic is under control.
However, the rate in the country remains at 6 per cent, and is a sign that more positive cases have yet to be detected due to a lack of screening tests.
"To achieve such a level, we need to target at least 360,000 people to be screened daily as compared to 64,000 daily.
"In comparison, the 2021 Budget is only allocating RM475 million for screening, tracing and monitoring," he said, adding that the country should also recruit an additional 33,000 health personnel instead of just 3,500 as announced in the Permai package.
As for vaccination, the former Sabah Chief Minister said the programme should be conducted fast and comprehensively.
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