KUALA LUMPUR: Malaysia has managed to avoid catastrophe with the implementation of a total lockdown or the Movement Control Order (MCO 3.0) nationwide, since June 1.
Prime Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin said the decision helped curb the exponential surge of new cases in the country.
This, he said, followed the alarming projection by the Health Ministry that the daily Covid-19 cases would exceed 13,000 today unless a total lockdown was implemented, which could overwhelm the public health system and lead to its collapse.
"Alhamdulillah, through the First Phase of the MCO, we are beginning to see the graph of Covid-19 infections beginning to flatten.
"Daily cases are showing a downward trend with 4,949 cases recorded yesterday compared to 9,020 on May 29, the highest daily tally recorded in this country since the outbreak of the virus early last year.
"As a result, our health systems have been able to accommodate new cases and the high number of patients.
"This only indicates that all the measures taken by the government have proven to be fruitful; we have avoided a catastrophe," he said.
The government had on May 28 implemented a total lockdown nationwide from June 1 to 14, before extended it for another two weeks until June 28.
The total lockdown was enforced following the escalating Covid-19 cases in the community and the emergence of new variants with high infectivity, threatening the capacity of the country's public health system.
Muhyiddin said the decision to implement any lockdown was not easy.
"In terms of the economy, our country is losing RM1 billion a day during this round of MCO."
He said to cushion the economic impact on the people, the government rolled out Pemerkasa Plus, an economic stimulus package and financial aid worth RM40 billion with a fiscal injection of RM5 billion.
"I hope all forms of aid from the government could ease the burden of affected individuals and businesses," Muhyiddin said, adding the country however could not afford to remain in such situation.
"For the sake of our health and livelihoods, we need to get out of this crisis immediately.
"As such, the government has come up with the National Recovery Plan, which to is carried out in phases, to take all of us out of this Covid-19 pandemic."
He said the government has drawn up the plan with the best possible consideration to ensure that every decision would continue to safeguard the lives and livelihoods of the people and benefit the country.
"The plan takes into account the contagious threat of Covid-19 in the community and the high number of active cases in hospitals.
"This plan serves as a guide and has been meticulously formulated based on data and science to take us back to normalcy.
"In addition, the increase in the supply of vaccines of 16 million doses by end of July, as well as the ramping up of the daily vaccination rate, have given us that confidence booster to embark on this National Recovery Plan."