Kota Kinabalu, 4 April 2020: “The confirmation by the Sabah agriculture minister that Sabah has only received its supply of reagents for Covid-19 tests is another shocking exposure of the gross weaknesses of the government in combating the Covid-19 virus in Sabah,” said Sabah Progressive Party (SAPP) Vice president, Gee Tien Siong.
“More than a week after an NGO has imported a supply of covid-19 test kits and donated that same to the Sabah Medical Department, then the Sabah Government’s own supply of test kits arrived at Kota Kinabalu. It has been more than 2 months ever since the Sabah government had known about the onset of the Covid-19 virus threatening Sabah when Sabah banned all flights from China. What has the government been doing for the last 2 months? We have wasted 2 precious months,” said Gee in a statement.
“As the Sabah Medical Department has now revealed that the Department aims to do 1,000 to 2,000 tests per day, it means that the quantity of tests done in the last 2 months (only a few hundred tests or less or none) has been too low of only 5% to 40% of the amount of tests that was necessary to keep track of the spread of Covid-19 and to combat the virus. The people should also thank the minister for agriculture for showing leadership on the public health issues because the Sabah minister responsible for health seems to be missing in action. But the people also hope that the Sabah agriculture minister should focus on big problems being faced by the agricultural sector, especially the palm oil industry, most of which have been closed by the Sabah government.