Covid-19 surge hampers contact tracing and other news you may have missed

KINI ROUNDUP | Here are key headlines you may have missed, in brief.

1. Health inspectors are struggling to keep up with contact tracing for the ongoing surge in Covid-19 cases, and even the MySejahtera app is of limited use when case numbers are high.

2. The Labour Department has opened 19 investigation papers against Top Glove, while the Covid-19 cluster linked to the company comprised half of the 1,472 new cases detected yesterday. The company has pledged to make improvements to its accommodation facilities.

3. The opposition lost its third bloc vote during the committee stage debate on Budget 2021, but errors in the counting process have underscored weaknesses in the counting system.

4. Pasir Gudang MP Hassan Karim claimed the three bloc votes carried out do not prove that Prime Minister Muhyiddin Yassin has a majority control of Parliament, as he has yet to garner at least 111 votes.

5. Heated exchanges in the Dewan Rakyat descended into incivility yesterday. Pasir Salak MP Tajuddin Abdul Rahman called his counterpart Muar MP Syed Saddiq Syed Abdul Rahman a "kid" (budak) but said it was a joke, while Deputy Plantation Industries and Commodities Minister Willie Mongin fended off accusations of flashing an obscene gesture. A false fire alarm forced a temporary suspension of the proceedings.

6. Rohingya refugee Sharifah Shakirah had crossed rough seas and thick jungles at only five years old to seek asylum in Malaysia before being resettled in the United States, nearly two decades later.

7. Defence Minister Ismail Sabri Yaakob denied failing to observe social distancing while dining around a table in Malacca and claimed the photographs purportedly showing him breaching the rules are misleading.

8. The Department of Statistics estimated that for every RM100 a man makes, a woman would earn only RM94. Women are also found to be lagging behind in terms of political empowerment.

9. Ten Gombak voters have filed a lawsuit against the MP Azmin Ali accusing him of breaching promises made during the 14th general election.

10. The Penang government will proceed with its plan to build a light rail transit system despite the Finance Ministry’s rejection of its application for a RM2 billion loan and guarantee.