KUALA LUMPUR, Sept 12 — DAP secretary-general Lim Guan Eng today commended Health Minister Khairy Jamaluddin for appointing an Opposition MP as the Covid-19 coordinator for Penang.

Khairy made Bukit Mertajam MP Steven Sim the point man for all Covid-19 matters related to Penang and Sim will be the coordinator between the federal and state government.

"This appointment of Steven Sim was necessary to find a joint collaborative effort to break the rise in Covid-19 infections that caused Penang to record amongst the highest infections, deaths, Intensive care unit beds and ventilator utilisation per capita in Malaysia,” Lim said in a statement today.

Khairy appointed Sim yesterday in the spirit of bipartisanship. He said he would be in constant contact with Sim to better coordinate their Covid-19 efforts with which Lim said the state government had been struggling.

Khairy had said that this would add onto the relationships he currently has with Penang Chief Minister Chow Kon Yeow and state health exco Norlela Ariffin, allowing him to quickly receive queries from Penang state assemblymen and other public representatives.

He pointed to the six areas Sim said he would like to focus on as the state-federal Covid-19 coordinator, namely to increase healthcare capacity; to reduce the response time for Covid-19 patients to get health services; more efficient risk assessment and enforcement especially at factories; to ensure a stable supply of vaccines to have 100 per cent of Penang adults vaccinated next month; to ensure healthcare for those under home quarantine to reduce the number of brought in dead cases, and for more transparency in Penang’s daily Covid-19 statistics.