Selangor to set up Covid-19 taskforce

By AFIQ AZIZ / Pic By RAZAK GHAZALI

THE Selangor government will set up a special committee to prevent the coronavirus from spreading within the state.

Health, Welfare, Women Empowerment and Family executive councillor Dr Siti Mariah Mahmud said the move is crucial following the latest cluster case announced by the health authority.

Case 26 of Covid-19 had spread the virus directly and indirectly to 21 people within Selangor since last week, making the number of infections in the country to 50 cases on Wednesday.

“Prior to this, we only had cases that were brought from outside, but since Case 26, the internal transmission has been multiplied.

“As such, we are going to form a special taskforce next Monday to prevent this,” Dr Siti Mariah told the press in Shah Alam, Selangor, yesterday.

Dr Siti Mariah said the taskforce will comprise the state health committee, health consultants, as well as the Selangor economic planning unit.

She will lead the taskforce, which aims to educate and promote the Covid-19 preventive measures to the public.

“This will be done via various channels including social media and programmes which will be determined later,” she said, adding that no extra allocation is needed for the initiative.

“The budget given by the state for this year is sufficient.”

In Budget 2020, Selangor allocated RM21 million for the state’s health initiatives.

“We have also started the campaign among the state councillors to practise ‘Salam Covid’ to minimise physical contacts between us.

“We hope that this will be followed by members of the public because we cannot trace where our contacts have been.

“So, it is everybody’s responsibility,” Dr Siti Mariah added.

Selangor is the most populated state in Malaysia with 5.46 million people, while its neighbours Kuala Lumpur (KL) is home to some 1.8 million residents.

Government offices, corporate buildings and private hospitals in the Klang Valley have been disinfected following the Case 26 cluster outbreak early this week.

These include the Felcra Bhd headquarters (HQ), Bank Rakyat HQ, Khazanah Nasional Bhd HQ, Pantai Hospital KL and Subang Jaya Medical Centre.

Most of the Covid-19 cases were transferred to the Sungai Buloh Hospital and KL Hospital.

As of yesterday morning, the virus, which originated from Wuhan, China, has sickened 95,124 people in 82 countries with a death toll of 3,254.

Of the total, 51,171 have been cured, according to the World Health Organisation’s data.