{"id":11405,"date":"2021-09-09T12:05:51","date_gmt":"2021-09-09T04:05:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=11405"},"modified":"2021-09-09T12:05:53","modified_gmt":"2021-09-09T04:05:53","slug":"govt-gears-up-preparedness-for-future-pandemics-tengku-zafrul","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/?p=11405","title":{"rendered":"Govt gears up preparedness for future pandemics – Tengku Zafrul"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 — The government is mulling several measures\u00a0to strengthen the healthcare system\u2019s resiliency and preparedness for future pandemics while meeting the longer-term challenges of an\u00a0ageing population and non-communicable diseases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Finance Minister\u00a0Tengku Datuk Seri Zafrul Aziz said several\u00a0policy measures are being studied, including putting in place an \u201calways-on\u201d system and partnerships that can be rapidly scaled during pandemics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe government is also looking into strengthening national and local mechanisms to detect infectious disease to stop transmissions at an early stage;\u00a0ensuring the health system\u2019s readiness to handle surges in cases\u00a0while maintaining essential services, and developing an integrated epidemic-prevention agenda.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"pandemics\"<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSuch reforms will ensure the protection of lives and\u00a0livelihoods while keeping the economy open for business,\u201d he said in a special address during\u00a0the virtually-held\u00a0National Recovery Summit\u00a0today.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Going forward, Tengku Zafrul said achieving a target level of population immunity is a key enabler in Malaysia\u2019s path to recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As of\u00a0Sept 7, more than\u00a020\u00a0million people or\u00a089 percent\u00a0of the country’s adult population have\u00a0received their COVID-19 vaccination dose,\u00a0including 16\u00a0million people who\u00a0are now fully vaccinated.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c<\/em>Insya Allah (God willing), we are\u00a0well on our way to having 80 percent of the adult population fully vaccinated by end of September, and 100 percent\u00a0by end of October.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAfter that, we will start living with COVID-19 as an endemic disease,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So far, he said Malaysia\u00a0has seen its\u00a0efforts bear fruit, as the\u00a0number of COVID-19 cases which required\u00a0hospitalizations and admission into\u00a0Intensive Care Units\u00a0continues to decline.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThis is especially true in parts of the country where more than 60 percent of the adult population have been fully vaccinated.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAs Selangor, Kuala Lumpur, and Putrajaya transition to Phase Two\u00a0on Sept 10, we will allow\u00a0the resumption of more economic activities which will spur the nation\u2019s economic recovery,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

— BERNAMA<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 9 — The government is mulling several measures\u00a0to strengthen the healthcare system\u2019s…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":10564,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[524],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11405","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-nation"],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-06-at-11.59.00.png",585,316,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-06-at-11.59.00-150x150.png",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-06-at-11.59.00-300x162.png",300,162,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-06-at-11.59.00.png",585,316,false],"large":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-06-at-11.59.00.png",585,316,false],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-06-at-11.59.00.png",585,316,false],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-06-at-11.59.00.png",585,316,false],"newsium-slider-full":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-06-at-11.59.00.png",585,316,false],"newsium-featured":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-06-at-11.59.00.png",585,316,false],"newsium-medium":["https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/08\/Screen-Shot-2021-08-06-at-11.59.00.png",585,316,false]},"author_info":{"info":["Editor"]},"category_info":"Nation<\/a>","tag_info":"Nation","comment_count":"0","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11405","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11405"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11405\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11406,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11405\/revisions\/11406"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/10564"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11405"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11405"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newmalaysiatimes.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11405"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}