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Lau Pang Heng
KUCHING (Sept 26): Parti Sarawak Bersatu (PSB) Kota Sentosa branch representative Datuk Dr Lau Pang Heng urges the Health Ministry to release more details on Covid-19 Brought-in-Dead (BID) in the state.
Details including age, occupation, location of stay, economic and social status, vaccination status, particularly type of vaccines administered and probable comorbidities would assist medical researchers understand reasons to address BID cases in Sarawak, he said.
“BID represented 24.5 per cent out of the total death of 277 from Aug 1 to Sept 24 which is alarming. Since the beginning of Covid-19 pandemic, there were 123 BID deaths out of total 740 deaths.
“We urged the authorities to extend extensive home health care programmes (sic) so that BID can be prevented.
“We also call upon the authorities to continue to conduct mass finding, scanning and testing exercises (sic) so that those suffering from possible silent hypoxia can be detected. A specific user-friendly manual need to be published in major languages so everyone understands,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Graph shows weekly Covid-19 death and BID in Sarawak from Aug 1 to Sept 24.
Lau further said that research has confirmed that those suffering from silent hypoxia may not be aware of symptoms due to inadequate knowledge and skills about home monitoring.
He added that Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin had mentioned that 86 per cent of the BID died in August 2021 without undergoing medical attention.
“We ask the ministry why this can happen in Malaysia? (sic)”
He advised those having shortness of breath, vomiting, headache to immediately consult a medical doctor and questioned local authorities on the extent of BID research in Sarawak as research data would help address the root cause of BID.
At the same time, Lau called upon the authorities not to compare the Covid-19 situation here with New South Wales, Australia or Singapore.
“Our Covid-19 positivity rate as on Sept 22 was 27.7 per cent; ICU occupancy was 100.83 per cent as of Sept 24; and Sarawak RO was 0.97 on Sept 24 compared to Malaysia’s RO of 0.90.
“New South Wales is targeted to vaccinate 90 per cent of the population with minimum first dose by next week while Sarawak vaccinated 69.5 per cent of the population as on Sept 24. New South Wales’s Covid-19 positivity rate is significantly small. Singapore has been continuously conducting research to address the Covid-19 issues.”
Lau concluded by saying that it is the government’s duty to look after the citizens’ health and well-being.
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