JOHOR BARU: The new Cabinet's priority should be to immediately look at new ways to tackle the rising number of Covid-19 cases in the country.

       Johor Umno treasurer Datuk Md Jais Sarday said there was an urgent need for a "fresh pair of eyes" to have a look at how to tackle this pandemic.

       "We need to expand Covid-19 testing, contact tracing and getting people isolated to tackle this pandemic. Johor used to have about 1,000 plus cases daily, and on Thursday (Aug 26), the cases have increased to about 2,700," he said in an interview.

       The Kluang Umno division chief said that this was a worrying trend and more resources should be opened up to expand the 11 Covid-19 assessment centres (CAC) in the state.

       "It is good that we have a virtual CAC for Johor, but we must also look into the fact that many people are not IT savvy," he said.

       He added that more allocations should be channeled to employ part-timers at the CAC and so run them 24 hours to enable more people to be tested.

       Md Jais added that there was a need to take more precautions, especially with transmissible variants such as Delta.

       He added that effort should also be put in place to help the people who were jobless and unemployed and also to help the children who have lost almost two years of education due to Covid-19 pandemic which started in 2020.

       "This online learning has caused many children to miss out on proper education, as families with five children do not have the means to have such devices to do their education," he said, adding that he was concerned about the thousands of such children nationwide.

       In the new Cabinet line-up, Johor continues to have 8 ministers and a deputy minister.