Unhide the confusion over HIDE – P Gunasegaram

‘HIDE clearly highlights the amount of confusion that the government’s handling of Covid-19 has raised. There is no coordination, consideration, nor thought given to measures taken, with each leader working in his own silo. Examples of previous gaffes include a botched and questionable roll-out of the AstraZeneca vaccine; conflicting statements over police requirements for interstate travel; the U-turn on exercise requirements during the movement control order; a number of different dates for closure of Ramadan bazaars; etc.

‘The government badly needs to get its act together over the control of Covid-19. It is not an easy task – but it is made much tougher by a lack of coordination and ministers shooting from the hip before moves have been properly considered. There is a crying need for professionals to take over and for politicians to be side-lined – a clear mandate needs to be given to a committee of professionals from various relevant ministries to run the operation to fight Covid-19 and make the needed announcements.

‘Probably the best person to lead this effort is Health Director-General Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, who has a very good grasp of the problem and who will be able – with the help of other top civil servants and experts from the private sector – to deal with this.’

Read here (The Vibes, May 10, 2021)

Suspend HIDE information announcement immediately, shopping mall operators and retailers tell MOSTI

‘The statement [by The Malaysia Shopping Malls Association, Malaysia Retailers Association and Malaysia Retail Chain Association] claimed that the HIDE assessment is grossly unfair to shopping malls and retailers which have invested so much on safety and control and adhered to Covid-19-driven SOPs as determined by the authorities. "The earnest and diligent adherence to the SOPs at shopping malls would appear to have, unfortunately, back-fired and inadvertently punished the malls. 

"We understand that the national [Covid-19] infection rate is 1.3% and from our own statistics, shopping malls’ infection rate is significantly below the national average,” the statement claimed. Citing data from the Health Ministry, the statement said the ministry’s data shows that factories, communities and construction sites constitute the top three locations where Covid-19 incidence is detected at 48.06%, 12.5% and 11.56% respectively.

‘As the ministry’s data shows that shopping areas only comprises 4.78%, the statement said clarification needs to be accurately provided as to the incidence of Covid-19 infections in shopping malls and areas. "It is obvious the HIDE information is incomplete and skewed and portrays a completely different picture than the real situation. "The information is incomplete as only those premises and operations that diligently comply with the SOPs and MySejahtera recording are data-mined. "Those sectors that do not comply and blatantly flout the SOPs are not evaluated for lack of data and thus do not appear as a hotspot, despite being so,” the statement claimed.’

Read here (The Edge, May 8, 2021)