Don’t ease restrictions, say experts

New clusters, lax compliance issues still remain

PETALING JAYA: As Malaysia enters Day 159 of the movement control order (MCO) today, medical experts believe the nation is nowhere near the last lap and that an extension past the Aug 31 recovery MCO end date should be in order.

Citing the number of newly-detected clusters and cases of noncompliance to the SOP, Malaysian Medical Association president Dr N. Ganabaskaran said Malaysia did not look ready for relaxed restrictions.

“We believe restrictions should be maintained even perhaps until the pandemic is over, if necessary, and if there is inconsistency in compliance to the SOP.

“Enhanced MCO measures too may need to be imposed from time to time for any new localised clusters,” he said.

Dr Ganabaskaran said the association observed that people would take the SOP seriously only when enforcement was stepped up.

“If we go into a more relaxed phase, there is a worry that many may even behave as if the pandemic is over as we have seen when certain restrictions were eased.” he said.

The new normal preventive measures should be maintained until the pandemic was globally declared over, he said.

With no certain timeline on the availability of a vaccine, he said Malaysians should continue to focus on fully observing basic preventive measures which have proven to be effective in breaking the chain of infections.

Medical Practitioners Coalition Association of Malaysia president Dr Raj Kumar Maharajah also concurred that the recovery MCO should be extended, citing the emergence of new clusters in previously declared green zones.

“Malaysia should stick to the new normal for at least two years,” he said.

He cautioned against moving to a more relaxed phase after Aug 31 as the public had not been taking the recovery MCO seriously.

“I think in the next stage, the restrictions will remain the same but with stricter enforcement,” he said.

He said it was vital for Malaysia to be able to quickly identify and prevent clusters of infections in order to prevent community transmissions and the possibility of new restrictions beyond the recovery MCO.

While Malaysia had been doing well in containing Covid-19, he said there were countries which were doing well previously but were now seeing a spike in cases.

“We have lessons to learn from them,which is that progress does not mean victory,” he said.

Dr Raj Kumar pointed out that the new clusters in Malaysia showed that the people had let their guard down and that more public education was needed.

“What I mean by education is that every person and family has a responsibility to know the level of transmission locally, and to understand what they can do to protect themselves and others,” he said.

Malaysian Public Health Physicians’ Association president Datuk Dr Zainal Ariffin Omar said the government should continue with the recovery MCO until December.

However, he also suggested that the government could open up the country’s borders with selected countries.

Former deputy health minister Dr Lee Boon Chye said the next stage of the MCO should be extended until the pandemic was over.

He believed that intermittent outbreaks and new clusters were going to be norm in the next year or so.

“Hopefully these clusters do not start with hundreds of cases,” he said, adding that such big clusters could be prevented by observing the new normal, having efficient public health response and ongoing surveillance.

Dr Lee also said that the reopening of borders could be done selectively through cooperation with nations having low infection rates.