MHC to Gov’t: Please deploy long-term strategies to cope with COVID-19

THE Malaysian Health Coalition (MHC) expressed its strong support towards the ten suggestions mentioned in the Open Letter to the Prime Minister that was released yesterday, urging the Government to come up with sustainable and long-term strategies for the country after suffering a year of COVID-19.

That being said, MHC still believes that the measures implemented for the ‘zero COVID-19’ approach is too harmful for the rakyat to withstand.

“We must adapt the strategies undertaken by relevant peer countries to ‘live with the virus’ instead,” MHC said in a statement released today.

To achieve this, MHC suggested for schools and essential businesses to continue with strict and predictable guidelines in place.

“The Government should not rely on the movement control order (MCO) as the main tool to manage COVID-19, as it has cost the economy RM2.4 bil per day and affected the mental health of the public.

“Another MCO will be even more damaging, on top of the current floods in several states,” MHC opined.

However, in the case that MCO is unavoidable, MHC hopes that the Government will implement a short-term and geographically targeted MCO instead, which might need to be reinforced in certain red zone areas.

“Vaccines will help but full deployment will require another one to two years. Therefore, the Government must announce their long-term strategy to the rakyat and deploy it as soon as possible,” it said. – Jan 8, 2021

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