The agonising struggle is back: lives or livelihoods? A pandemic paradox, one may say. In the last six days, the country has recorded three-digit cases of Covid-19, the bulk of it in Sabah.
If it had stayed in Sabah, containment of the coronavirus would have been easier. But it didn't. Returnees from the state brought the virus to the peninsula.
Then there is the Tembok prison cluster in Kedah, where the close proximity of inmates enabled it to spread like wildfire. Prison revamp is an old cry, but it hardly gets a fair hearing. As an aside to those in charge of prisons, we say this: if we want to reform people, which must be the purpose of prisons, these institutions must be reformed before inmates are.
It has now become clear that mistakes were made regarding the recent Sabah state election. It must not be allowed to happen again. And yet there are people on both sides of the South China Sea who want a general election. For them, neither lives nor livelihoods seem to matter. Power at the worst of times is okay. We say this to all and sundry: listen to the epidemiologists.
But before that, a piece of advice to the irresponsible some: do not be power wise people foolish. Now for the epidemiologists. The Movement Control Order may not be necessary if the government does the right thing, say the medical experts. But the government must act in the next few weeks. Haste in this case is no waste.
Firstly, it must hurry with active case detections aggressively, says epidemiologist Datuk Dr Awang Bulgiba Awang Mahmud, a professor at Universiti Malaya. The government needs to rush more frontliners to Kedah before the virus breaks through the prison walls.
As for Sabah, where hospital beds dedicated to Covid-19 patients are fast being filled up, he thinks secondary treatment facilities, such as indoor stadiums and halls, manned by the Armed Forces Medical Corps will become necessary.
"Looking at the ratio of new-to-recovered cases for the last 10 days, Sabah will likely run out of dedicated Covid-19 beds soon, so it is best to be prepared for at least six to eight weeks of managing this scenario in Sabah."
Secondly, Dr Bulgiba feels the government must not delay any further the implementation of real-time syndromic surveillance nationwide, a system that tracks respiratory distress, fever or other signs of ailments among the community before a diagnosis is confirmed and sends such information to public health authorities. Thus does a symptom send a signal to the health authorities. Why do we need it now more than ever?
The pandemic has made it necessary, but the advantage is this. Health officials nationwide are alerted quickly of health events and are able to monitor how well their response is working.
Thirdly, stay-at-home order (HSO) for Sabah returnees wasn't a good idea. Epidemiologist Dr Noran Naqiah Hairi, a professor at Universiti Malaya, says HSO is a second-best option. Instead, the government should make it mandatory for all to be quarantined at state-designated centres. Finally, Dr Noran reminds us, taming the coronavirus isn't just the responsibility of the government. The governors and the governed, too, must behave responsibly.
Health and social protocols must be adhered to. Irresponsibility by either will mean helping the virus overwhelm us.