THE International Trade and Industry Ministry (Miti) recently announced that it will allow a grand total of 128,150 companies with a total workforce of 1.57 million to operate during the country’s total lockdown period from June 1 to 14.
The decision had, unsurprisingly, drawn quite a lot of negative reaction among the masses. Furthermore, the health ministry (on June 5) has detected 24 new COVID-19 clusters in the past 24 hours, with 17 of them identified as workplace clusters.
In case these figures fail to clue you in on the severity of the situation, let’s look at this from a broader scope: over the week in review, workplace clusters have accounted for 71 (54.4%) of the 138 new clusters that were reported.
Senior Minister cum Miti Minister Datuk Seri Mohamed Azmin Ali also said that the companies are allowed to operate during the movement control order (MCO) 3.0 with strict adherence to the new standard operating procedures (SOPs).
But who are we kidding? If these companies had really adhered to the ‘strict’ SOPs in the first place, we wouldn’t be seeing so many workplace clusters in the first place, would we?
According to the Prime Minister’s Office in a recent statement, all sectors are not allowed to operate except for essential economic and services sectors listed by the National Security Council during this lockdown period.
Logically speaking, the only sectors that should be allowed to operate are those involved with food, agriculture and health.
This is to help reduce the pressure on the country’s healthcare system which is currently at a critical stage, and allowing this many companies to operate during this period isn’t helping a bit.
Don’t forget, the whole purpose of having a ‘total lockdown’ is to bring down the number of cases, not further contribute to the numbers.
If anything, Miti’s move defeats the purpose of a total lockdown. In fact, why bother calling it a ‘total lockdown’ in the first place? Wouldn’t ‘partial lockdown’, or MCO 4.0 be a better choice instead?
So please, put a stop to this by committing to a total lockdown, for without it, there is very little hope for the COVID-19 situation in the country to see an improvement. – June 6, 2021
