KUALA LUMPUR: A Covid-19 survivor, who only wants to be known as Azwani, fully supports the decision to extend the Movement Control Order (MCO) 3.0 as it will help the healthcare system and allow more tests for the virus to be done.
The 51-year-old said Covid-19 testing and screening should be carried out during the period of the lockdown since the virus is rampantly spreading within the community.
"As of now, we do not know who is the silent carrier. By making it mandatory for everybody to stay at home, it is the right course of action to break the infection chain in the community.
"The more we test, the more we will track down the positive cases. Nonetheless, we should not lower our guard once the positive cases are reduced because there are those who are asymptomatic," she told the New Straits Times.
She also said extending the full lockdown for another two weeks could ease the strain on the country's healthcare system.
Echoing her views are those who have so far been spared from the Covid-19 virus.
University student Luqman Hakim, 22, said he would rather face a full lockdown as what had been done when the pandemic first hit the country.
The extension of the lockdown, he said, should be coupled with stricter standard operating procedures (SOP) just like the first MCO last year.
"It produced results that we wanted (to significantly reduce the infection rate). I'm all in, 100 per cent, to extend another round of full lockdown.
"I want this so that we can resume physical classes and the situation can be safe for everyone, as soon as possible," the Journalism student said.
After a year and a half of attending online classes, Luqman said he could barely focus lately during classes held virtually as there were many distractions.
"It feels like I am losing my mind slowly. My sleeping schedule and attention span are haywire. My friends and I agree that it is getting harder to focus in class. Some of us can only focus for five minutes.
"We have five or six semesters left and we have spent one-third of it attending online classes. Simply put, I cannot handle another semester of online classes," he said.
Mohamad Danish also echoed Luqman's view, pointing out that enforcing a full lockdown for only a short period of time would not get the best result.
"Sometimes the cases are high. Sometimes they are lower. But, they have remained in the four-digit range for awhile now.
"So the best way to move forward is to extend the total lockdown, for a few months if necessary until the number of new infections are under control.
"Personally, if attending online classes helps in reducing the number of daily new cases and eventually containing the Covid-19 situation, I guess it's a sacrifice I will make.
"While I fully support resuming face-to-face learning, it is unwise to proceed with it until everyone is vaccinated," he said.