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Deputy Chief Minister Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas speaking at an SDMC press conference on Covid-19 update in Kuching. – Photo by Chimon Upon
KUCHING (Sept 20): The record-high 20 Covid-19 fatalities yesterday (Sept 19) were due to backlogs, said State Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas.
He explained that backlogs were inevitable as the medical personnel have to confirm and carry out post mortem on whether the deceased had died from Covid-19 complications.
“We reported 20 death cases yesterday but in fact, these figures were from different dates. We had a death case recorded on Sept 6 and 7; two on Sept 15; one on Sept 16; 11 on Sept 17 and four on Sept 18,” he told a press conference after chairing a meeting on the Covid-19 Public Awareness Working Committee here.
Sarawak recorded its highest single-daily Covid-19 death cases yesterday where the victims, comprising 12 men and eight women, were aged between 59 and 97.
All of them had comorbidities such as hypertension, diabetes, gout, kidney, heart failure and stroke.
Uggah said SDMC however, will be changing the way death cases are reported in its daily Covid-19 statement from today onwards.
“The Chief Minister has advised us to change our way of reporting (the death cases). We will be stating the dates of the deaths so that people won’t get shocked from seeing the figures,” he said.
He pointed out that despite the high figures, Sarawak’s Covid-19 death cases was among the lowest in the country.
When asked for more information on whether the fatalities involved victims who have been fully vaccinated, the Deputy Chief Minister said he did not have details with him at the moment.
“Our mechanism in SDMC is that the government will be handling the infrastructure and logistics as well as mobilisation of people and resources.
“Anything to do with medical, will be left to the State Health Department. They are the ones who will be managing it and formulating the policies and programmes. The state government will come up with the support on what they need.
“That’s why some of the technical questions I cannot answer. We need professionals to answer,” he said.
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