In a shortest time possible, Malaysia’s Covid-19 cases rose at an alarming rate, exceeding 5,000 cases daily. Our healthcare system is nearing breaking point. We cannot forget how quickly this virus can spread, nor the devastation it can cause. To help counter the Covid-19 pandemic, the government has initiated the Movement Control Order (MCO) 1.0 in March 2020 and reinstated it with MCO 2.0 since 13th January 2021 and to be extended for another 2 weeks which will end on 18th February. There could be more cases in the pipeline as new work clusters are being discovered while only about 15% of an estimated 1.5million foreign workers are being tested since December 2020. It was reported by few government officials and ministers that the government will not implement a total lockdown even under the worst-case scenario – that on one hand, it provides some relief for most businesses as they could continue to operate during this MCO period and on the other hand, the limitation of full enforcement of MCO could implies a much delayed economic recovery as the focus remains with the containment.

The overarching state of emergency, likely to end in August 2021 and expectations of the 15th General Elections could have significant implications to the overall confidence to consumers and businesses, especially after the overall economy being subjected to significant pressure over a series of policy actions over a long period of time. The incoming first batch of vaccine in late February however offers light to the end of the tunnel but it is not without its own difficulties too.

There are commentaries that MCO is not producing much desired results and no clear correlation between MCO and Covid-19. I beg to differ!

It worked well in the past and I have no doubt that it will work its magic once again if and only if, that it is being properly implemented along with new twists in educating public, greater involvement of nongovernment organizations (NGOs) in terms of contact tracing, to give critical services to vulnerable groups of people among other, improved regional cooperation & cross-learning to improve the transmission of trustworthy information about healthcare management and the utmost full funding to support the Ministry of Health given our biggest ever Budget 2021 allocation. Otherwise, this MCO 2.0 extension without an effective network of solidarity will be a meaningless effort to stop this domino effect since early 2020. Already, we have various forms of social stigma, discrimination and stereotyping.

I am sure that NGOs are natural partners in this endeavour, knowing that there is nobody in a better place than them to understand the pulse at the grassroots and engage closely with communities. Covid-19 has disrupted the livelihoods of many and put them in dire straits on top of a public health emergency. Efforts spreading awareness need to be intensified with deployment of mass communication including local TV stations and radio channels along with an enhanced role of corporate and business. In India, all spending on activities related to Covid-19 will be added under CSR expenditure.

Chee Seng, Wong
CIO, Athena Advisors
wong-chee-seng@outlook.com