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By Sadho Ram — 19 Apr 2020, 04:20 AM — Updated about 1 hour ago
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“On 10 March, we had a new cluster appear which the previous government failed to contain, which is the tabligh cluster. It happened from 27 February to 3 March. It is very big,” the Health Minister said.
“Until now, we are still unable to stop its spread,” he added, claiming that had this cluster been stopped earlier, “the second wave of infections wouldn’t have happened” in the country.
The Health Minister was referring to the four-day ijtimak tabligh gathering that was held at Sri Petaling Jamek Mosque in Kuala Lumpur and was attended by more than 16,000 attendees.
Given his previously made misleading claim about warm water killing coronavirus, we thought we should fact-check Dr Adham’s latest claim
First things first, it appears the Health Minister is not aware that 2020 is a leap year.
The month of February had an extra day.
The four-day tabligh gathering was held from 27 February and ended on 1 March, not 3 March.
Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah detailed the number of attendees and the date of the gathering in this infographic on his official Facebook page back on 13 March.https://www.facebook.com/plugins/post.php?href=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.facebook.com%2FDGHisham%2Fphotos%2Fa.656071844416707%2F3129388890418311%2F%3Ftype%3D3&width=500
The first set of COVID-19 cases in Malaysia was reported on 25 January. The numbers remained relatively low and a month later, all 22 cases made a full recovery and were discharged by 26 February.
On 27 February, a 53-year-old Malaysian woman with travel history to Japan became Case 23.
Next day, two more cases were reported. It involved a Japanese female national and an Italian male, both foreign nationals working and living in Malaysia. That was all for the month of February.
This happened prior to the tabligh cluster, which came to light during the second week of March.
Dr Adham claimed that “if the tabligh cluster was prevented, there would be no second wave. We may only have small clusters.”He then put the blame on the previous government for the failure. However, the Health Minister omitted an important fact from his claim.
When the tabligh gathering was held, Malaysia was without a government from 24 February to 29 February after the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration was collapsed due to the political crisis caused by the current ruling coalition of Perikatan Nasional (PN) which came to power without going through an election.
The political crisis, in part, was caused by Dr Adham’s party UMNO which allied with several other parties with the sole intention to take down the PH government amidst the COVID-19 situation.
In fact, the political crisis continued for at least two more weeks into the month of March, during which, Muhyiddin Yassin, who took Bersatu out of PH to join forces with opposition parties along with Azmin Ali, was sworn in as the eighth Prime Minister on 1 March under his new PN coalition.
Meanwhile, the Ministry of Health (MOH) remained without a Health Minister until 10 March. On that day, PN MPs were sworn in to form a new Cabinet with Dr Adham being made the Health Minister.
Another crucial fact that Dr Adham is probably not aware of is that preparation to handle the COVID-19 situation had started in December
MOH, at that time under Dr Dzulkefly Ahmad, planned and identified seven hospitals specifically to treat COVID-19 patients even before the first cases were reported on 25 January, according to Dr Noor Hisham.
“Remember, before we get our first our patient on the 25th of January, our preparation already started in December 2019,” the Health D-G, who has been serving in his current role since 2013 and has worked alongside three different Health Ministers, is on record stating Malaysia’s COVID-19 preparedness.
By Sadho Ram — 19 Apr 2020, 02:18 PM
Former health minister Dr Dzulkelfly Ahmad has taken to his Facebook page to “set the record straight” on the COVID-19 situation in Malaysia
Dr Dzulkefly’s post comes amidst his successor claiming that the previous government had failed to contain the tabligh cluster, which grew to become Malaysia’s biggest source of COVID-19 infections.
In his post, late Saturday night, 18 April, the former health minister said that the tabligh gathering could have been avoided had the then Minister of Home Affairs wasn’t “distracted” from his work at the time.
When the tabligh gathering was held, Malaysia was without a government from 24 February to 29 February after the Pakatan Harapan (PH) administration was collapsed due to the political crisis caused by the current ruling coalition of Perikatan Nasional (PN) which came to power without going through an election.
Dr Dzulkefly has suggested that before Dr Adham Baba hurls accusations on PH for failing to control the tabligh event, he should ask Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin about the gathering
Muhyiddin was in charge of the Ministry of Home Affairs portfolio when the four-day ijtimak tabligh gathering was held at Sri Petaling Jamek Mosque, as such it fell under his purview at the time.
“If there was a minister more aware of the situation on the tabligh gathering, it would have been the Home Minister, who is now the eighth Prime Minister,” Dr Dzulkefly wrote on his post.
“Before the Health Minister hurls accusations at me he should ask him (Muhyiddin) if he knew about the event … maybe he was not aware of it as he was busy with more serious ‘agendas’ that took his focus away from doing his job,” he said, adding that “it’s very disappointing that all our efforts to curb the spread of COVID-19 were hijacked by the advent of the ‘Sheraton Move’ or ‘Langkah Sheraton’.”
According to him, the political crisis saw all COVID-19 prevention plans put on a two-week hiatus as no one was in charge of anything
“On 29 February, Muhyiddin was appointed as the eighth Prime Minister, was sworn-in on 1 March, and was only able to form a Cabinet on 9 March, therefore, causing more than two weeks of COVID-19 management to be without political leadership and strategy compared to before,” Dr Dzulkefly wrote.
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Sunday, 19 Apr 2020 11:37 AM MYT
BY R. LOHESWAR
KUALA LUMPUR, April 19 — Former health minister Datuk Seri Dzulkefly Ahmad said the tabligh event, which caused nearly half of all positive Covid-19 cases in Malaysia, could have been avoided if it wasn’t for the political crisis the country was facing.
Dr Dzulkelfy was responding to current health minister Datuk Seri Dr Adham Baba’s accusations that the largest cluster of Covid-19 patients in Malaysia could have been prevented if the previous government managed the outbreak well.
In a conference call with Umno president Datuk Seri Ahmad Zahid Hamidi yesterday, Dr Adham pointed out that by right Malaysia should only be having small clusters of Covid-19 infections if the tabligh gathering at Sri Petaling on February 27 had been prevented.
Dr Adham claimed that the gathering took place from February 27 to March 3 when Pakatan Harapan (PH) was in office.
However Dr Dzulkefly on his Facebook place last night pointed out that the tabligh event was from February 28 and not February 27.
He said this resulted in a two-week hiatus from all Covid-19 prevention plans as no one was in charge of anything.
“In conclusion, I urge the health minister to stop his politicking immediately especially now when the Covid-19 crisis is at hand and the movement control order (MCO) is in place.
“It would be more constructive if he can grasp the reality and severity of the situation and be a strong leader instead,” Dr Dzulkefly continued.
“Try to come up with an “Exit Strategy” based on data and evidence and guide of the prime minister and his Cabinet to take steps to end the MCO.”
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weehingthong 