6 Reasons Why Malaysians Are Not Ready For The Lifting of Covid-19 Lock-down!

Malaysians are not ready for the lifting of lock-down that is caused by the spread of Covid-19 virus. The following are the reasons why.

As most of the world's populations have been in some forms of lock-down or quarantine for the past few months, governments across the globe are grappling with the economic repercussions of the pandemic. Many people have become jobless and governments cannot afford to give unlimited "handouts" that will eventually cause the collapse of the countries. In Malaysia, the new government also believes that the lock-down needs to be lifted by introducing the so-called conditional Movement Control Order that will start on the 4th of May 2020 (next Monday). However many Malaysians do not agree with this rather unwise decision. A lot of us would want the government to stick to the original plan to gradually lift the lock-down on the 12th of May 2020. WHY?

6 Reasons Why Malaysians Are Not Ready For The Lifting of Covid-19 Lock-down

1. The Virus Is Not Under Control (at all)

So what is Conditional Movement Control Order? Apparently certain businesses and social activities will now be allowed as long as there is no mass public gathering or anything that will risk the people from getting infected. The truth is, it appears that the Muhyiddin-led government might be RISKING even more Malaysians to be infected by the Covid-19 virus. It is clear that the virus is not under control at all with double-digit of positive infection cases being recorded daily! Even Canada and Japan which used to record single-digit of infection before lifting their lock-down order immediately REGRETTED their decision! What is our government thinking right now? No one actually shows them figures that the virus is still at large?

2. Too Many Undetected Clusters

Look at what is happening to our Singaporean neighbors down South! They have recorded a daily infection of at least 500 positive cases every single day for the past week as they did not really contain the spread of the virus. They thought that it was under control when there were only around 20 infections being reported daily. The reason for this hellish outbreak was due to an oversight in undetected clusters. So they were wrong and the Circuit Breaker (lock-down) introduced by their prime minister has so far been ineffective! And now on Labour's Day, Muhyiddin announced they are easing on quarantine order? *slow clap*

3. Not Enough Widespread Testing

Surely our infection number is low compared to many countries, however this might be due to the fact that we are not testing enough at all. Yes! Lack of test kits, laboratories and qualified medical workers are the reasons why testing has been really terribly low for us! Our Malaysian Health Ministry reported that Malaysia will be able to do 22,000 tests daily starting from next week (source). YES only 22,000 tests daily which is very, very LOW. UK is carrying out 100,000 tests daily while Germany is carrying out more than 50,000 tests daily. There might be hundreds or even thousands of people who could have been infected by the Covid-19 virus, walking FREELY on the streets to infect other Malaysians starting from next week!

4. Not Enough Affordable Face Masks & Disinfectants

The government has reassured us many times that there will be enough face masks for all Malaysians. Really? Where are the FREE face masks that have been promised to each household? Not every Malaysian can afford to wear clean face mask every day given its asking price. The government should provide subsidies to the manufacturers to help keep the prices of face masks reasonable. It is a shame that some errant, opportunistic Malaysians are taking this crisis to sell face masks at higher prices. On top of that, the prices of disinfectant and hand sanitizers are skyrocketing meaning that fewer people will have access to them. So the less privileged will be neglected obviously.

5. Covid-19 Virus Is Insidious & Invisible

How can we fight against something that we cannot even see with our naked eyes? It is a fact that Covid-19 virus is stealthily spreading among people without us knowing it. By wearing a mask, we could cut down the risk of being infected but it is still not a fail-safe, right? Heck we are still unsure if the virus is airborne or not. Moreover a person who is infected by the Covid-19 Virus might not show any symptoms at all. Then he or she will walk around infecting other innocent people unknowingly. The virus keeps on evolving and mutating, making it even harder to be traced. Then when you finally realize that you might have got it in you, it might be too late! The worst part is-there is no cure or vaccine so far to directly counter Covid-19 virus making it invisible and invulnerable!

6. Some Malaysians Are Selfish, Ignorant & Uneducated

Let's face it. We will not have such high number of positive cases right now if it were not for those selfish participants of the religious gathering who refused to be tested. Some of these idiotic people who have attended the Tabligh gathering in Sri Petaling even had to be escorted forcibly by the police to go for testing. Moreover a lot of Malaysians are ignorant and uneducated. Ignorant-because they think that they will not be infected by the virus which is "far away"! Hence they will not be bothered to wear any face mask or practise proper personal hygiene. I must say that I am angry that many Malaysians are "uneducated". They do not know what is the meaning of social distancing. They seem to confuse a distance of 2-metres and 20cm. Hence you will see a lot of morons standing so close to you when you are buying your groceries in the shops. Will there be any enforcement being done to curb such stupidity? NO!

We need to be cruel to be kind!

Do you agree with the reasons that I have laid out here? The intention of easing the lock-down was to curb the economic impact brought by Covid-19 virus which has reportedly caused the nation a loss of RM2.4 billion daily. Then again, I honestly believe that this decision to lift the lock-down is ill-advised. What if this conditional quarantine lifting causes more people to be infected by Covid-19 virus? Then we might need to have an even longer period of lockdown which will harm the economy even more! Why can't the government see this imminent, possible risk? A lot of doctors, nurses and other front-liners are surely shocked by this decision and are shaking their heads right now. Are they at the mercy of this "wrong" judgement? Will their hardwork and sacrifice be wasted?

Do not make life worse for our frontliners!

All in all, I am strongly against this dim-witted decision. Why can't we stick to our original plan to ease the Movement Control Order on the 12th of May instead? Muhyiddin and his government will need to be held responsible should our crisis become worse. Heads (his included) need to roll if this decision is WRONG. However I pray and hope that I am wrong. So are we ready for this conditional lock-down lifiting? I do not think so. What say you?

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