Dr Jemilah Mahmood, special adviser to the prime minister on public health, said there are plans for a one-stop information centre to manage the distribution of aid to those affected by the MCO, which has seen all non-essential businesses shut since March 18.
“We will set up a coordination hub which can be a one-stop information centre and hopefully facilitate some of the approvals required,” Jemilah, who is advising Muhyiddin Yassin on health-related policies and initiatives, told a webinar (online seminar) organised by Yayasan Hasanah today.
“We’re trying to get this off the ground by next week. We need to put our heads together and get this to work.”
The Mercy Malaysia founder was appointed to her position last month.
NGOs have been helping to provide food and provisions to the needy across the country as the MCO has left hundreds of thousands of low-income families, daily paid employees, migrant workers and refugees struggling to make ends meet after either losing their jobs or seeing their pay reduced.
However, although aid is being distributed on a daily basis, there is concern about whether it is being distributed in an efficient and timely manner.
Jemilah said the Welfare Department (JKM) has been swamped by requests for aid, and having a coordination hub would help alleviate some of its burden.
“We want to try to match some of the needs (for aid) with the capacity to provide aid. If you’re a JKM officer receiving 1,000 phone calls a day, you can’t do anything but answer the phones,” she said.
“We are trying to relieve that pressure so all the information can be uploaded onto a virtual space, which can be used to connect people and facilitate some of the work.”
Jemilah, who was named the winner of the Asean Prize 2019 in recognition of her role in humanitarian missions and disaster management in the region, also warned of the danger of having a sea of volunteers delivering assistance throughout the country.
Reminding the public that the country is fighting a pandemic, she said social workers are at risk of contracting Covid-19 each time they leave their homes – suggesting that NGOs which are better equipped to deal with the virus might be on the frontline on others’ behalf.