PUTRAJAYA is making a mistake by solely relying on vaccination as a way out of the Covid-19 pandemic, Lim Kit Siang said today.

He added that lessons from other countries are showing that giving the jabs to the population alone would not help overcome Covid-19.

His warning comes as the government ramps up its vaccination programme, targeting to give out 500,000 shots per day in an effort to reach herd immunity by October.

The government said yesterday 35% of the population has received both jabs.

“We seem to be over-relying on the national vaccination rollout in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic. The vaccines will help but it is not a silver bullet for the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Other nations like Israel, the United Kingdom and the United States have shown that the vaccine alone cannot solve everything,” the Iskandar Puteri MP said in a statement.

He added that with vaccination at almost half a million daily, almost 47% of Malaysians have been given one dose of vaccine and 25% fully vaccinated with two doses, “but we have yet to see any effect on the case numbers and deaths”.

“Do we have to wait until almost 90% of Malaysians are fully vaccinated?”

The DAP veteran said that it “shocking and abhorrent” that those in power were more concerned with political games and conspiracies when the sole focus should be on how to save Malaysia by first cutting down the daily Covid-19 cases and deaths.

He added that for 26 consecutive days, the daily new Covid-19 cases have been in five-digit numbers, twice exceeding the 20,000-mark in the last three days.

And for 27 consecutive days since July 12, except for July 25, daily Covid-19 deaths were in three-digit figures.

For the past week since August 1, the daily death rates are in the 160-257 range, he added.

“The Muhyiddin government is still trying the same trick and expecting a different result.

“Shouldn’t the policy makers have a serious reset to get the case numbers and the death rates down?”

Lim suggested that the government enrol medical students or employ short-term contract workers to help as front liners to track and trace in ramping up testing.

He said that when positive rates following testing is persistently at 11-13%, it must mean that the virus is deep in the community and testing is the only way to flush them out.

“Yet testing must be complemented by adequate tracking, tracing and then quarantining them.

“Our frontliners are tired and exhausted. We must do whatever we can to get the cases down.”

He also asked the government to explain what its plans were to overcome the acute shortage of intensive care unit (ICU) beds in the country.

“The exact hospital situation as regards facilities for the care of Covid-19 patients, including ICU facilities, oxygen reserves and drugs capabilities continue as matters of concern.

“There are long queues for hospital beds and even longer queues for ICU beds. There are also reports of an increasing number of patients brought in dead who were Covid-19 positive.

“What is the government’s solution for these pressing problems?”

Malaysia yesterday reported 19,257 cases, with active cases standing at 224,120. There are 1,097 Covid patients in ICU.

There were also 210 deaths yesterday, taking the overall tally of Covid-19 deaths to 10, 389.

As for vaccination, 425,698 doses were given out yesterday – 186,035 receiving their first dose while 239,663 their second. – August 8, 2021.