YESTERDAY, China ended its 76-day lockdown of Wuhan, the original epicentre of the Covid-19 pandemic. But elsewhere across the globe, countries are locking down to halt the spread of the virus, which is now raging in the United States, the new epicentre.
Malaysia itself is undergoing an extended Movement Control Order, scheduled to end on April 14. Another extension is in the forecast; this time, experts believe, it may run up to three weeks or a month. Why? The hundred-plus daily cases are worrying, and are expected to increase in the coming weeks.
Last Sunday, for instance, there were 179 new cases; Monday, 131; Tuesday, 170; and up to noon yesterday, 156, bringing the tally to 4,119 cases and 65 deaths. Twenty-three areas are categorised as red zones, and four areas are under an Enhanced MCO.
Suffice to say, the need to flatten the curve must continue, and to do that, an extension is necessary, says a medical practitioner at a private hospital. We may have little choice, he says, because the contagion needs to be contained, as it has not yet reached its peak for the cases to plateau.
The medical practitioner also says numbers are increasing because more cases are being traced to the Covid-19 sub-cluster related to the Sri Petaling tabligh gathering.
So it may be well and good for an extended MCO as the threat from further infections is far from over. This Leader says while the extension may not be well received, it is not an option. Costs to the economy, will, of course, be hefty, as is expected if the MCO ends as scheduled.
The pandemic has already started a new way of economic thinking. There are only estimates as yet of the damage to the economy, but economists say they range from bad to catastrophic. The Malaysian Institute of Economic Research, a local think tank, is predicting a recession, forecasting the economy to contract by 2.9 per cent this year with the number of job losses estimated at 2.4 million.
But trudge on we must. Medical experts, businessmen and government officials have implied that an extension may be necessary. For, lifting the MCO could be premature as it may wipe out the gains we have so far achieved in containing the virus. Or worse, Malaysians may throng the city streets to do their festive shopping, with Ramadan only a week away after the MCO is supposed to end. All then will be lost, as the repercussions will be greater.
We have made some progress. Let’s not spoil it. The government has done a fine balancing act to ensure none is left out in the stimulus packages announced. If an extension is announced, the government may want to allow some flexibility of movement in this next phase.
It took China 76 days before it could lift the lockdown on Wuhan. Malaysia was only into its 22nd day of the MCO yesterday. What’s another 20 days? Consider the number of infections globally up to yesterday — more than a million people have been infected in some 200 countries with more than 83,000 deaths.
Let’s face it, Malaysians. We have to be prepared to stay home for a reasonably longer period of time for our own safety.