The successful
implementation of 3 stages of MCO had flattened the curve and moving toward the
lifting of such measures. The government had not revealed any detail and
apparently is at the drafting stage.
The South Korea
had demonstrated a similar situation as in Malaysia during this Covid 19
rampage. A cool period which both countries shown a good control and later an
outbreak due to a specific religious cluster leading to a massive uproar of
figure. The advance in technology of South Korea had however enable them to
produce rapid test kit, GPS + mobile phone tracking system which enable the
authorities to track down the victims, suspects and contacts. Their daily cases
had decreased steadily since earlier this month and approaching single digit
recent 1 week.
Malaysia lacking
of those tools had however maintained a good control and paving itself toward a
similar path.
The price was a
total lock down jeopardizing its economy and daily routine of its peoples. The
problem Malaysia facing at the moment is producing a good exit strategic for
MCO.
The key to the
success of South Korea controlling the Covid19 was not the tools they have but
the self awareness of its peoples.
As quoted by Eun A
Jo in an article posted in THE DIPLOMAT:
“While important, these governmental measures would not
have been effective without the large-scale cooperation of the public, the
imperative for which was painfully learned.”
The painfully
lesson of MERS in the 2015 causing many fatalities was due to withholding of
information by the authority. The amendment of its infection control act had empowered
the minister of health to collect essential data for contact tracing and also
allow the public to assess crucial information regarding the spread of the
disease.
It is a trust of
both parties where violation of human right was definitely noted during the
stage of pandemic.
The Malaysia had
however lack of similar condition where people was not terrified by any plague
like disease in the past 20 years. I remembered during my days as a house
officer, the central part of Malaysia was haunted by the Nipah encephalitis.
Initially it was considered as a JE outbreak but later it was proven otherwise.
When I left Malaysia, SARS was terrorizing the Fareast; I remembered the KK I
worked in had only 2 N95; which were the only PPE we had.
For all those
years, my homeland has not been disturbed like what we had experiencing at the
moment.
Well, it had been a
good fight with the cooperation of the rakyat as the figure had been showing
progression as time passed. However the challenge had only started as the exit
strategy had to be implemented in a near duration.
The self awareness
of rakyat is the most crucial part for the maintenance of the post MCO phase as
China had shown the resurging of figure as they lifted the lock down. With more
than 500+ arrest a day, our fellow rakyat will have to do better to ensure we
had a smoother transition from the lock down.
The DG had however
stressed on travel ban and it is a good news as our neighbor countries are not
doing as well as we had so far.
