In a thinly-veiled dig at Penang health committee chairman Norlela Ariffin, Lim said her role had been brought into question after the state failed to achieve its target to have all adults given at least one vaccine shot by Merdeka Day.
Penang, he said, should not meekly follow the federal government, but rather draw up its own distinct measures to show that its state-level efforts were effective.
Unlike Selangor, he said, Penang did not set up an Operation Surge Capacity coordinator to facilitate talks between the state and federal governments and ensure there were no vaccine supply disruptions.
Selangor had vaccinated 112% of its adult population with their first dose compared to Penang’s 85.6%. Selangor had also fully vaccinated 94.1% of its population compared to Penang’s 59%.
Lim said anyone who dared to say that Penang had done well in the battle against Covid-19 was like an ostrich with its head in the sand.
“This is a gross disservice to the 400 dead who could have been saved if only the vaccines had arrived earlier,” he said in a statement.
“The people of Penang do not need apologists from the federal government but leaders who can fulfil their electoral mandate to defend and speak up for the interests of Penangites, and to save precious lives and livelihoods.”
He said the situation in the state was dire as there were 1.5 times more deaths in the last 22 days compared to the first seven months of the year.
This grim tally was a sign of the federal government’s failure in handling the pandemic, with delays in vaccine procurement and delivery.
“By undertaking every effort to make up for the shortcomings or failures of the federal government, only then can the state government give recognition to those who have unnecessarily lost their lives from Covid-19,” he said.
The number of infections in Penang remains the worst in the country, with 93.3 cases per 100,000 population (seven-day average), according to the health ministry.
There were 1,600 new cases yesterday, down more than 400 from the all-time high of 2,086 recorded on Aug 26.
The infectivity rate was at 1.07 on Sept 1, indicating that the spread of the virus was “stable”.
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