WITH the turn into a new month, a more critical phase in Malaysia’s battle against the Covid-19 outbreak has begun. The days ahead will be telling if we are on the road to achieving a “flattening of the curve” in the number of cases reported.
Up to 6pm yesterday, the number of infections had risen to 2,908 with 45 deaths. The good news is that yesterday recorded the highest number of recoveries in a day with 108 patients discharged.
Reportedly, the compliance rate with the Movement Control Order (MCO) has reached 97 per cent, although more than 400 people have been arrested for flouting regulations. To avoid any further extension to the MCO, the government may push for full compliance, or as close to it as possible.
However, this may be impossible for a variety of reasons. Chief among them would be the presence of vulnerable groups in our midst — the senior citizens, the homeless, the poor and the underprivileged.
These groups depend on non-governmental organisations (NGOs), which have not been able to serve them because of the extended MCO until April 14. At this point of time, when all is at a standstill, NGOs are their lifeline.
From the government’s perspective, as it seeks to break the virus’ chain of transmission, the life-sustaining work of these NGOs may look like the soft underbelly — a chink in the anti-Covid-19 armour.
As Health director-general Datuk Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah noted, everyone, NGOs included, must play his role and comply with the MCO. “It is imperative that everyone follows the rules, including practising social distancing, during this trying times.”
There is no question of NGOs ceasing their roles and functions, or the groups they serve may just starve and wither away.
This Leader hopes NGOs can come to a quick understanding with the authorities on a set of do’s and don’t’s, which they must strictly adhere to in the course of their work.
It is imperative that the government and NGOs work as one towards shared and noble goals. Related government agencies, in particular those directly under the Women, Family and Community Development Ministry, are no doubt working to the hilt to ensure that food and other daily necessities go to those in need.
Even the armed forces have been roped in to airlift supplies to remote settlements in Sabah and Sarawak as all public and private transportation means are presently unavailable.
NGOs’ role, therefore, is to fill in the gaps, particularly as government agencies are over-stretched at this time. Common-sense measures are needed to ensure that while particular or sectoral essential work continues to extend sustenance to the needy and the vulnerable, the larger responsibility of all in helping to contain the spread of Covid-19 must not be given short shrift.
NGOs must, as religious groups have, realise that pursuing noble goals does not make them immune to the ravages of Covid-19, an infectious disease outbreak that has turned into a pandemic.