MUHYIDDIN Yassin should resign over his dismal performance in handling the Covid-19 pandemic instead of making “mad” decisions such as allowing those returning from overseas to quarantine at home, former prime minister Najib Razak said today.
 
Writing on Facebook, Najib said the decisions made by Putrajaya were not driven by data and science but were based on politics and “madness”.
 
“Fully vaccinated people are still at risk of being asymptomatic carriers of the virus and also have the potential of bringing into the country other variants of the coronavirus.
 
“Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has also warned that Malaysia should tighten its borders to (prevent} the Lambda variant which is resistant to the vaccine from spreading in the country.
 
“360 deaths were reported yesterday with 85 individuals brought in dead while hospital capacity is running low. Under these circumstances, instead of stepping down to stop all this madness, Muhyiddin decides to relax the SOP,” he wrote on Facebook.
 
Yesterday, Muhyiddin announced that the government has agreed to relax the SOP in areas under phase 2 of the National Recovery Plan and for fully vaccinated people.
 
Dine-ins, inter-district travel, tourism activities within the state and sporting activities that do not involve group settings will also be allowed for fully vaccinated individuals from August 2.
 
In a follow-up post, the Pekan lawmaker added that Malaysia has one of the highest death rates per population.
 
“Of the 8,022 Covid-19 deaths reported worldwide yesterday, Malaysia contributed  4.5%.
 
“We are ranked seventh in the world in terms of the number of deaths if we do not look at population density. Taking into account the population, we are one of the countries with the highest death rates.
 
“It is time the government admitted failure. These are deaths and involve the lives of Malaysians. It’s an absolute tragedy.”
 
In another post, Najib said that despite multiple lockdowns and the emergency, Malaysia has not improved.
 
“The pandemic has affected all the countries in the ethnic world but Malaysia’s situation has only gotten worse after seven months of emergency and the longest lockdown in the world.
 
“His government will, however, pin its failure on the people for not following the SOP.”
 
Malaysia’s cumulative Covid-19 infections now stand at 1,262,540 while the overall death toll is 10,749. – August 9, 2021.