Has the emergency worked?

Malaysia has been under a state of emergency since Jan 11– although we only found out about it a day later.

It was said the emergency would help us win the battle against Covid-19 but 104 days later, it is still same old, same old.

On Jan 10, we had 2,433 cases. Over 30 days from Dec 12-Jan 10 there were 55,683 cases for an average of 1,856.1 daily infections.

Yesterday saw 2,847 new patients. From March 25-April 23, there have been 50,727 cases for a daily average of 1,690.9.

Shouldn’t the numbers be lesser considering all the ‘stringent’ standard operating procedures (SOPs) in place for the ordinary folks?

Even the United States, which has been the worst hit by the coronavirus, issued a Level 4 “Do Not Travel” Advisory for Malaysia due to Covid-19.

The US Department of State has issued a Level 4 “Do Not Travel” advisory for Malaysia due to #Covid19.

US has over 31 million Covid-19 cases. In the past week, a daily average of more than 62,900 infections was reported in US.https://t.co/TVHTWhM6U3

— Haresh Deol 🇲🇾 ‏ (@HareshDeol) April 22, 2021

Would we have been worse off if there was no emergency or would the numbers have been the same as they are today?

I guess it depends on your political leanings.

The opposition says no.

Yang di-Pertuan Agong Al-Sultan Abdullah Ri’ayatuddin Al-Mustafa Billah Shah has agreed to grant an audience to the ‘Tamat Darurat’ committee, comprising opposition leaders who are seeking an end to the emergency.

The committee wants to present to the King a list of negatives that it claims have happened to the country since the emergency was declared.

If you listen to those in government, they will say it has worked beautifully.

Home Minister Datuk Seri Hamzah Zainudin said the emergency has enabled the government to better handle Covid-19 and bring the numbers down.

If you ask parents how they feel, many are confused and unsure if it is safe to send their children to school as there have been more than 80 clusters from the education sector.

More and more schools are being closed and now Pahang police chief Datuk Seri Abd Jalil Hassan says they are thinking of issuing compounds to schools if new clusters emerge if they don’t follow the SOPs.

Education Minister Datuk Radzi Jidin promised only 17 students per classroom when schools reopened but that is not happening with some schools having two to three times that number.

‘The MCO Diaries’ wrote about it last July and it is still happening.

Do you blame the school or the minister as there may not be enough space for all the children to practise physical distancing?

As a friend suggested, perhaps if the police issued a compound to the minister each time a new cluster emerges, he may be proactive in finding a solution.

For the record, there is a petition to close schools in red zones. It has nearly 18,000 signatures.

More than a year since the initial Movement Control Order (MCO), the powers-that-be still seem to make things up as they go along.

So emergency or no emergency, it’s as you were. And that is so sad as it appears we haven’t learnt anything.

Let’s not forget that the government has amended the National Trust Fund Act 1988 to enable Putrajaya to tap into reserves to battle Covid-19.

Anyway, today is the 403rd day since the start of the original MCO and this is the 45th weekly edition of ‘The MCO Diaries’.

17,007 INFECTIONS – THE MOST IN TWO MONTHS

Malaysia recorded 17,007 new infections in the past week, the most over seven days since Feb 20-26 (18,140).

We had over 2,000 cases each day from April 17 to yesterday which brought the total to 387,535.

The good news is that 13,045 patients were cured of the coronavirus, the most over seven days since March 6-12 (15,757).

Sadly, there were 50 more deaths which took fatalities to 1,415.

Worldwide, there are nearly 145.8 million cases with close to 3.1 million deaths.

LOOKING FOR FLOWERS?

A friend, Eliza Mohamed, who was previously the chief communications officer at Sime Darby Plantation Sdn Bhd, has a new business. The flowers look lovely.

STAYING FIT

A report last week said Taiwan’s Lin You-mao has been certified as the world’s oldest badminton player.

A great example of staying active at 98. We salute you.

GREAT IDEA

Saw this on Twitter

ICYMI: After a year of remote learning and socially distanced classrooms, one school in Spain is adapting to a new way of teaching – moving lessons to the beach pic.twitter.com/sMLpG0NowB

— Reuters (@Reuters) April 18, 2021