THE government should stop fooling the people by making comparisons with other countries on the fight against Covid-19, Najib Razak said today.

The former prime minister said such comparisons do not make any sense.

He said this in reference to claims by the government that new cases in countries such as the United Kingdom, Spain, Italy and France have also gone up, and as such Malaysia is not on its own in the trend of rising cases.

“If these claims are right, then Malaysia has no hope,” he said in a Facebook post.

The Pekan MP said that the other countries eased their restrictions due to their high vaccination rate, and because their lockdown had been successful.

Meanwhile, Malaysia is only banking on vaccination as a way out, he said.

“Therefore, the cases in the other countries went up because vaccination does not provide 100% protection against infection, although it greatly prevents those infected from being critically ill,” he said.

He said lockdowns are not meant to reduce case numbers but to prevent severe Covid-19 infection and deaths, as well as reduce the strain on the healthcare system.

He said the number of fatalities in those countries had fallen to the minimum with some reporting lower deaths from Covid-19 compared to a normal flu.

Comparatively, the death rate in Malaysia remains high, he said, while using graphs reflecting the statistics to illustrate his point.

“That is why the other side (government) must stop fooling the people with illogical excuses to defend the failed government by comparing our country’s Covid-19 statistics, where infections and deaths are still high despite the continuous lockdown, to that of countries that have eased their lockdown and reported falling death rates,” he said.
 
For a population of 32.7 million, Malaysia has reported more than 900,000 cases and 7,000 deaths so far. – July 22, 2021.