NGOs roped in to tackle Sabah outbreak and other news you may have missed
KINI ROUNDUP | Here are key headlines you may have missed, in brief.
1. Activists running a community school in Sabah for stateless people found themselves feeding and supervising quarantine for an entire island’s inhabitants when Covid-19 infected the community. The health ministry said the Sabah Health Department had been overwhelmed with cases there.
2. Efforts to tackle the Covid-19 resurgence seems to be bearing fruit as the disease’s infectivity (as measured by its reproduction number R0) dropped to 1.2 yesterday. However, Health Ministry director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said this is not good enough because it indicates the outbreak is still growing.
3. Noor Hisham said the ministry would prefer not to have another election, but if unavoidable, it would have to be conducted under a new set of restrictions. Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob said the government will discuss standard operating procedures for the Batu Sapi by-election with the Election Commission.
4. A report claimed Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin is open to appointing an Umno representative as his deputy and is just waiting for the party to name an “acceptable” candidate, but he would not appoint Umno president Ahmad Zahid Hamidi due to ongoing corruption cases against Zahid.
5. Several analysts said Umno’s decision to reaffirm support Muhyiddin would buy the latter some time in power, but this would be a temporary arrangement that may last only during the pandemic.
6. Warisan president Shafie Apdal has conditionally voiced his party’s willingness to back Perikatan Nasional (PN)’s upcoming Budget 2021 proposal. Amanah deputy president Salahuddin Ayub said the opposition is prepared to meet the prime minister regarding the upcoming budget proposal.
7. Federal Territories Minister Annuar Musa said he is prepared to meet opposition MPs from Kuala Lumpur regarding the Budget 2021 after the latter urged for a meeting.
8. DAP’s Sungai Pelek assemblyperson Ronnie Liu is being investigated over his Facebook post regarding protests in Bangkok against King Maha Vajiralongkorn, which federal CID director Huzir Mohamed said may also contain seditious elements against the Yang di-Pertuan Agong.
9. Home Minister Hamzah Zainuddin said more than 10,000 police personnel had been placed under quarantine and at least 200 have tested positive for Covid-19, hampering the police’s ability to perform its duties.
10. A survey has found that more than half of Malaysian women have faced gender-based discrimination at work. The Women’s Aid Organisation has urged for amendments to the Employment Act 1955 in the next parliamentary sitting to address this.
