By Xavier Kong
PRIME Minister Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin has declared a partial national lockdown, with effect from March 18 to 31, as a measure to prevent the further spread of Covid-19 in Malaysia.
As part of this partial lockdown, no assemblies will be allowed regardless of the nature of the gathering, be it for religious, sporting, social or cultural purposes. To enforce this, all houses of worship and business premises are to be closed, with the exception of supermarkets, public markets, sundry shops, and convenience stores. All activities in mosques and suraus will be postponed, including Friday prayers.
A travel lockdown is also initiated, with no Malaysians allowed out of the country, while those returning will be subjected to health screenings and self-quarantines for 14 days. No travellers or tourists will be allowed in the country.
All schools, kindergartens, nurseries, and pre-university courses will also be closed, be they private or public. This includes tahfiz schools, boarding schools, and day schools. All public and private universities, including vocational schools, will be closed as well.
The lockdown will also include all government and private premises, except those involved in essential services, namely water, electric, energy, telecommunications, post, transportation, irrigation, oil, gas, fuel, lubricant, broadcasting, finance, banking, health, pharmaceutical, fire, penitentiary, port, airport, safety, defence, cleaning, sundry, and food services.
The prime minister called for calm and promised to provide regular updates of the special sessions that he will personally chair every day. Any queries can be directed to the dedicated hotline which will begin operation at 12PM on Mar 17. The hotline is 03 8888 2010.
All public transport networks will remain open and subjected to sanitisation works. The prime minister said the number of Covid-19 infections had risen exponentially around the world.
Malaysians cannot wait for the situation to get worse and the government had to take drastic measures to curb the spread of the virus. He urged Malaysians to be patient and not panic. “I believe that these measures taken by the government will stop the spread of the virus soon,” he said.
He added that supplies of food, necessities and face masks will be sufficient during this period.
Public servants have been ordered to work from home to reduce the risks of spreading Covid-19 and enable department heads to manage officers who are suspected of contracting the virus.
Public Services Department director-general Mohd Khairul Adib Abd Rahman announced this in a statement tonight, along with a guideline on managing the virus, which extends to the state civil service, statutory bodies and local authorities.
Early Monday, word had spread of a lockdown by the government to combat the Covid-19 spread and this resulted in shops and supermarkets being swamped by people buying excessive stocks of foodstuff and daily necessities. – March 16, 2020
