Public health experts in Malaysia are calling for a strict lockdown following a surge in coronavirus cases in the Country.
The total number of cases in Malaysia now stands at more than 541,200, and nearly 2,500 people have died of conditions related to COVID-19. It is the third worst-hit country in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia and the Philippines.
Although the Malaysian government has tightened precautionary measures several times with increasing numbers of new cases reported since April, it has stopped short of ordering a complete lockdown.
“The current tightened MCO (movement control order) measures are not sufficient to halt the rise (in cases),” said public-health expert Lim Chee Han, from international research and advocacy organization the Third World Network. “For any effective control measures to significantly and rapidly cool down the pandemic, the authority has to ensure the number of people’s physical interactions and contacts in the community can be reduced to the minimum.”
Lim further added that at this stage vaccinations alone might not be enough to bring the pandemic under control in the country.
Currently, Malaysia has tightened restrictions on interstate travel and business operating hours and limiting staffing levels in offices to 40 percent of capacity. Malaysia also announced on Thursday that it has procured an additional 12.8 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to ramp up its immunization program.
The total number of cases in Malaysia now stands at more than 541,200, and nearly 2,500 people have died of conditions related to COVID-19. It is the third worst-hit country in Southeast Asia, after Indonesia and the Philippines.
Although the Malaysian government has tightened precautionary measures several times with increasing numbers of new cases reported since April, it has stopped short of ordering a complete lockdown.
“The current tightened MCO (movement control order) measures are not sufficient to halt the rise (in cases),” said public-health expert Lim Chee Han, from international research and advocacy organization the Third World Network. “For any effective control measures to significantly and rapidly cool down the pandemic, the authority has to ensure the number of people’s physical interactions and contacts in the community can be reduced to the minimum.”
Lim further added that at this stage vaccinations alone might not be enough to bring the pandemic under control in the country.
Currently, Malaysia has tightened restrictions on interstate travel and business operating hours and limiting staffing levels in offices to 40 percent of capacity. Malaysia also announced on Thursday that it has procured an additional 12.8 million doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech coronavirus vaccine to ramp up its immunization program.
