PRIME Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin’s recent announcement of a two-week total lockdown in Malaysia (from June 1 to 14) is a move that’s long overdue, given the alarming uptrend in the daily recorded number of new COVID-19 cases in the recent weeks.
Under the first phase of the total lockdown, all sectors are not allowed to operate with the exception of essential economic and services sector.
But here’s the big question: Will the Government’s latest effort be more efficiently implemented this time around or will it be doomed to be a sad echo of the half-baked movement control orders (MCOs) that we had encountered in the past few months?
Taking into consideration the fact that Malaysia had, a few days ago, crossed the 8,000 cases threshold and that active infections had reached a staggering tally of 78,017 cases as at May 30, the decision to impose a full lockdown was a necessary one.
At the same time, there is no doubt that it is a bitter pill to swallow for many, especially those whose jobs are affected.
After all, with only 17 sectors being allowed to operate during this period, the economic consequences are expected to be more drastic than that of the MCO 1.0 in March last year, particularly among non-essential businesses.
While a full COVID-19 lockdown with most of the sector shut would guarantee people’s safety, however, there is also a risk that the country’s economy could collapse.
At the end of the day, the jury is still out on whether the full lockdown would achieve its intended result, which is to bring down the number of infections. But one thing that’s for sure is that we will only successfully flatten the curve of the pandemic if everyone takes the pandemic seriously.
As the saying goes, ‘be all in or get all out’. There is no halfway”. – June 2, 2021
