See Chee How
KUCHING (Sept 5): Sarawak should be let to conduct its own risk assessment and determine the date for Sarawakian children to return to schools for attendance of classes, said Batu Lintang assemblyman See Chee How.
As such, he urged the Sarawak state government and the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) to make representations to the federal government, in particular the Ministry of Education, to realise the matter.
He explained this needed to be done since Education Minister Datuk Dr Radzi Jidin had in a video aired and posted on Facebook on Friday (Sept 3) announced that the federal government has postponed the resumption of physical lessons at schools nationwide by a month to Oct 3 beginning with examination classes.
He pointed out that based on the announcement by the minister, schools in states under Phase One of the National Recovery Plan (NRP) are not allowed to reopen while those in Phase Two states would only be allowed to reopen for examination classes.
However, See stressed the situation is different in Sarawak whereby eight districts in the southern zone, namely Kuching, Bau, Lundu, Samarahan, Asajaya, Simunjan, Serian and Tebedu, were earlier declared to be under Phase Two of the NRP, while all other districts in the state are declared under Phase Three.
“The health and safety of all students in Sarawak are at risk due to the rampancy of the most highly transmissible and the most infectious Delta variant across Sarawak, particularly in all the major cities and towns in the State.
“The Sarawak state government and the SDMC must put their foot down and demand that Sarawak be empowered to carry out its own risk assessment and to determine on our own, the date to reopen schools in Sarawak.
“The statistics of Covid-19 infection and fatalities amongst children below 18 years of age have revealed that the situation is more grim and much worse than I have feared,” See said in a statement today.
MOH table on Covid-19 cases involving adolescents.
He explained that such statistics on Covid-19 infection and fatalities amongst children under 18 were compiled, produced and posted by the Ministry of Health (MoH) and published by a local daily recently.
“I was obviously mistaken when I previously said that the two child and adolescent fatalities in Sarawak, aged 17 and 8, were the first in the country. They were certainly not the first, as our country had recorded 6 fatalities amongst children below 18, and a whopping 41 deaths in the first 8 months of this year,” See said.
“And while we have 12,620 children below 18 years old being infected by the deadly coronavirus last year, the number has escalated 30-folds to 310,074 within the first 8 months of this year, the spike most likely due to the more transmissible and contagious coronavirus variants including Delta variant now spreading in the communities.”
He also said MoH and SDMC must disclose the infection rates and daily positive cases amongst our children below 18 in order that the state is able to devise plans and strategies to mitigate the threats and risks that are confronting our Sarawakian children and adolescents.
He added it is imperative for our state government to immediately inoculate children between 12 to 17 years of age in accordance with the recommendations of the Clinical Guidelines on Covid-19 Vaccination for Adolescents (12-17 years) in Malaysia, prepared by the MoH.
“Unless and until our children are fully vaccinated and our health experts in Sarawak are certain that it is safe for them to return to their classes, or impeccable SOP (standard operating procedures) are in place to ensure that our children are not at risk, it is our collective duty and responsibility to take care of their health and safety.
“Taking into consideration the risk of widespread Delta variant in our community, schools in Sarawak should not be reopened carelessly and impulsively,” See said.