Lo disappointed minister takes to social media to post inaccurate information on S’wak’s Covid-19 situation

Andrew Lo

KUCHING (Nov 3): Malaysian Trades Union Congress (MTUC) Sarawak secretary Andrew Lo is disappointed that a state minister has taken to social media to post inaccurate information regarding Sarawak’s latest Covid-19 situation.

He said Local Government and Housing Minister Dato Sri Dr Sim Kui Hian’s Facebook post on the state’s Covid-19 cases yesterday was confusing and could cause anxiety among the people.

“According to him, there are three cases from Cluster Wisma Saberkas. Yet in the same post, he also claimed: “Meanwhile, a new cluster is announced today – Cluster Wisma Saberkas with eight new positive cases detected so far.” Which is which?

“This is confusing and contribute to the general despair and anxiety,” he said in a statement today.

He also said that Dr Sim’s post seemed to preempt the Sarawak Disaster Management Committee (SDMC) and was not helpful, especially to workers who suffer from the economic fall out of the Covid-19 pandemic.

With Kuching experience an increase in Covid-19 positive cases lately, Lo said the Ministry of Health and SDMC have the unenviable task of managing and trying to contain the number of cases.

He said SDMC faced a great challenge in trying to formulate action plans to disseminate accurate information to the public to allow everyone to make informed and rational decisions.

“As expected, the millions of social media posts from citizens is not helpful at all. Most are not certified and the misinformation tend to create fear and anxiety at best and panic at worst.

“I appreciate it is difficult to prevent people to viral such misinformation. I know of many with more than 100 groups,” he said.

He said it was therefore disappointing that even ministers like Dr Sim posts regular updates and advisories via his Facebook page.

“As a minister and part of SDMC, most readers will take his posts as the gospel truth, nothing but the truth.

“However, some of his posts create unnecessary anxiety and are not entirely accurate,” he said.

SDMC chairman Datuk Amar Douglas Uggah Embas announced that a new cluster dubbed Wisma Saberkas Cluster had been identified yesterday with eight new positive cases detected thus far.

Three of the cases were detected yesterday while another five were detected previously including the index case.

The post Lo disappointed minister takes to social media to post inaccurate information on S’wak’s Covid-19 situation appeared first on Borneo Post Online.

from Borneo Post Online https://bit.ly/3ejIuT4
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