Leader

NST Leader: Covid-19 can be beaten

The recent record-breaking run as far as recoveries are concerned has left us feeling a little better about the current Covid-19 situation.

That good feeling, though, merely hides the truth — the number of new infections daily is still high. Naturally, if one compares our numbers with those in other worse-hit countries, our record of more than 2,000 cases in a single day would seem paltry.

In the United States, for example, there are more than 2,000 deaths a day. Still, medical experts are saying that we need a new strategy to bring down the infection rate. The Conditional Movement Control Order (CMCO) was supposed to have ended on Nov 10. It has been extended. Yet, during this time which was supposed to help us bring down our infection numbers, all we saw was an increase.

With a vaccine only likely to be available in the first quarter of next year, these experts say the government must find a way to start bringing down the numbers. Some are in favour of bringing back the MCO. Others are against it as it would hurt even more economically.

In the past, Malaysia earned accolades from the international medical community for quickly moving to impose the MCO and, in so doing, shutting down avenues for the spread of Covid-19. But that really hurt us economically. Economists predict that more than 100,000 Malaysians would lose their jobs by year end, and it would take a year for our economy to recover.

The thing is this: all these experts cannot even begin to agree on whether Malaysia needs to bring back the MCO. All they can say is that we need a new strategy. There are no fresh, plausible suggestions.

Let us not forget that even with a vaccine, Covid-19 may remain a part of our lives for the foreseeable future. We will likely, then, have to live with it just as we live with the spectres of dengue, HIV/AIDS, the H1N1 flu and other diseases looming over us.

So, where does this leave us? What new strategy can we employ when even the experts do not seem to have answers? Perhaps the first question we should ask ourselves, then, is whether we actually need a new strategy.

Why is it that we managed to contain the first two waves of Covid-19, but are struggling to do so this time around? Could it be that we do not need another MCO or a new strategy simply because the current increased numbers is due to a lack of compliance with established strategies?

One can have all the regulations in the world employed, plus various strategies. One can say we need to maintain physical distancing at all times, practise proper hygiene, have a work from home policy, online learning for schoolchildren. None of these regulations and guidelines will work if people simply will not adhere to them.

What we need then is for stricter enforcement and harsher penalties for those who still have tidak kisah attitude. These will make those who flout the CMCO regulations think twice before doing so.

Most important of all, though, is for a change in mindset among the people. We are all in this together and, if we all play our part, this pandemic can be beaten.

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