The 21-month Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia is equivalent to seven “911 tragedies” in the United States in human lives lost – when will the pandemic in Malaysia end?

America is marking the 20th anniversary of the terrible “911” Tragedy.

For Malaysia, the 21-month Covid-19 pandemic is equivalent to seven “911” tragedies in the United States in human lives lost – and Malaysians have a right to ask: When will the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia end?

America lost 3,000 human lives in the “911” tragedy. Today, the reconvening of Parliament, Malaysia would have neared or passed the 21,000-mark for Covid-19 deaths – seven times the toll of the American “911” tragedy!

The day before, the new Health Ministry (MoH) website, CovidNow recorded that we had 592 Covid-19 deaths.

Malaysians are now told that due to ongoing exercise to clear the backlog of Covid-19 death data, the Health Ministry expects the number of “reported deaths” to spike in the coming days.

Malaysians have been advised to refer to a new data set – “actual deaths” – as an indicator of the real-time situation.

This MoH explanation has caused considerable confusion.

Firstly, the MoH is not denying that the figures of “reported deaths” represented actual number of persons who had died of Covid-19 in Malaysia.

Secondly, for how long had the Malaysian public been given a lower estimate of the Covid-19 deaths in the country – one, two or three months?

Thirdly, for yesterday’s Covid-19 deaths data, which were posted at 1.30 am. on the new COVIDNOW website and at 4 am. on Worldometer, there were 292 Covid-19 deaths, including 106 Brought-in-Dead (BID) Covid-19 deaths. How many are respectively “reported deaths” and “actual deaths”?

Fourthly, is the MOH prepared to go back for one, two or even three months to issue a correction of daily Covid-19 deaths to show the “actual death” and “reported death” position on every particular date?

I cannot understand how the former Prime Minister, Muhyiddin Yassin, can continue to claim that his government’s war and strategy against the Covid-19 pandemic had not been a failure, as he claimed at the recent National Recovery Summit.

When Muhyiddin became Prime Minister on March 1, 2020, there were 29 Covid-19 cases and zero deaths. Today, we are likely to pass the two million-mark for Covid-19 cases and 21,000-mark for Covid19 deaths today?

We were ranked No. 89 when we celebrated our 57th Malaysia Day on Sept. 16, 2020 but in the last 12 months we have overtaken 68 other countries to be ranked No. 21 country with the most cumulative total of Covid-19 cases to join twenty other nations with more than two million cumulative total of Covid-19 cases.

We have become the top No. 1 nation in ASEAN in daily new Covid-19 cases, and for the last 26 days, we are having more daily new Covid-19 cases than Indonesia – in fact, Indonesia has only 3,779 new Covid-19 cases yesterday as compared to Malaysia’s 19,198 new cases.

The day before, we were the world’s Top No. 6th nation in daily new Covid-19 cases and the world’s Top 4th country in daily Covid-19 deaths. Yesterday, we were the world’s Top No. 8th nation in daily new Covid-19 cases and the world’s Top No. 4th country in daily Covid-19 deaths.

With 292 Covid-19 deaths yesterday, we have now beaten the world’s Top Four Countries with the most cumulative total of Covid-19 cases in daily Covid-19 deaths - United States (246 Covid-19 deaths), India (210 deaths), Brazil (261 deaths) and the United Kingdom (56 deaths).

Aren’t these sufficient indications of the catastrophic nature of the war and strategy of the Muhyiddin government against the Covid-19 pandemic and a new start must be made in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic?

Yesterday I asked whether the national vaccination rollout has stalled – that despite the promise of the administration of half-a-million dose of vaccine a day, we had only reached 258,929 doses.

The dosage of vaccines administered yesterday was even lower – at 227,476 doses.

An explanation from the new Health Minister is warranted.