NEWLY-APPOINTED Penang-Federal Covid-19 coordinator Steven Sim, who is also the Bukit Mertajam MP, has come up with several measures to strengthen the coordination between the state government and the Federal government in handling the Covid-19 pandemic.
According to a press release by InvestPenang today, among the strategies shared by Sim were a virtual Covid-19 Assessment Centre (CAC), vaccination for migrant workers, further enhancement on COVID-19 statistics disclosure and communication with the public, expanding hospital capacity, setting up of risk assessor team and vaccination for teenagers.
Sim was speaking at a virtual dialogue organised by InvestPenang with the industry leaders. It was chaired by Datuk Seri Lee Kah Choon, the special investment adviser to Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow.
He said by adopting remote surveillance, patients who are asymptomatic or experience mild symptoms would do self-assessments and would be monitored through the virtual CAC Management Module. CAC Call Centre will then contact the patients should the need arises.
“The state government is currently in discussion with the Federal government on ways to vaccinate migrant workers, including those who are undocumented.
“There will be designated Covid-19 vaccination centres catering to the vaccination of the migrant workers,’’ Sim said.
Sim said the Federal government has recently launched COVIDNOW, a new website that would offer a comprehensive data on COVID-19.
“We are in talks with the Health Ministry and web developer to further improve the data disclosure and presentation, such as the statistics at hospitals in reporting granular data on the localities.
“The state assemblymen representatives will now be included in their local Covid-19 management committee which consists of members from Covid-19 Assessment Centre (CAC), COVID-19 Immunisation Task Force (CITF), state Health Department and many others.
“With a good communication and proper information sharing as well as the coordination among governments and private sectors, communities will benefit from it,’’ he said.
Sim said the state government is also working on setting up risk assessor team to audit, monitor and assess the risks in the workplace, factories and construction sites.
“A more targeted approach to work with the industry players will efficiently prevent the infection risks at the respective locations,’’ added Sim.
Also present were Jawi assemblyman Jason Hng and Pengkalan Kota assemblyman Daniel Gooi, InvestPenang chief executive officer Datuk Loo Lee Lian and industry leaders from Penang Manufacturing Industry Advisory Council, represented by Association of Malaysian Medical Industries (AMMI), Federation of Malaysian Manufacturers (FMM), Free Industrial Zone Penang, Companies’ Association (Frepenca) and Small and Medium Enterprises Association (Samenta) and Penang Strategic Investment Advisory Council.
Story by Tanushalini Moroter
Pix courtesy of InvestPenang