Extension of MCO – Phase 3
Our Prime Minister, YAB Tan Sri Muhiyiddin Yassin has just announced a further extension of the Movement Control Order (MCO) for another two weeks till the 28 April 2020.
This will officially bring the MCO into its third phase. According to the Prime Minister, the nation’s effort to control the positive COVID-19 cases is at 7% at the moment, which is shy of 3% below the WHO benchmark of 10%. Not too bad we think, but we can definitely do better.
The death toll in the country is also relatively low, which is 1.6% compared to a global average of 5.8%. To date, 1,830 patients have been discharged from the hospital, which means we have a 43% recovery rate out of all positive cases. Kudos to our front-liners and medical staff. In fact, it is reported that we have 222 recoveries today compared to only 118 new positive cases!
This shows an overall downtrend of newly reported positive cases over the past few days. If this keeps up in the next two weeks then we would have successfully put this COVID-19 pandemic under control.
However, the government has decided to extend the MCO for another two weeks, till 28 April 2020 to allow medical staff to fully get this pandemic under control. This is inline with the advice from the Health Ministry as well as WHO’s advise to countries to not end movement controls too early, as seen in a few countries, this resulted in a sudden spike of new cases once the movement control was ended.
The police, army, maritime, immigration, RELA and other enforcement agencies have also been ordered to further tighten control of the country’s borders.
The Prime Minister also mentioned that the past few months have been different for all of us, and he called to Malaysians to embrace this new normal as we are unable to continue as we are used to at the moment. Gestures such as shaking hands have become a taboo, which may seem odd at first, but is necessary to keep the spread of the virus at bay. He advised that we may bow instead as a show of respect in this new normal, instead of shaking hands.
The new normal may not all be bad, as it has instilled some good habits in us, such as washing our hands often and taking more care of our personal hygiene. So we suppose this is the silver lining to this crisis?
Our Prime Minister also mentioned that he understands that the country’s economy has been affected due to the MCO, as such the government has agreed to allow certain economic sectors to continue operations in stages, with strict health and movement guidelines. Further discussions will be made with the relevant ministries and more information will be released later.
He stressed that this is not a sign of loosening the MCO, the MCO still applies strictly to everyone, and any businesses, companies, factories that are found to defy the order will have their operations permit retracted.
We at Penangite also understand that these are trying times, and we wish everyone to give their fullest cooperation to the government to quickly quell this crisis. This is the only way for all our lives to return to normal as soon as possible. With that we hope everyone stays healthy and stays safe in this time of crisis, and please obey the MCO!
Below we attach the original speech by our Prime Minister in full for those who missed the live telecast earlier. Till later Penangites!
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