These are tough times for Malaysians. We’re dealing with a pandemic, floods and also political turmoil. Yesterday (7 December), Malaysia recorded a new-high of 3,027 positive Covid-19 cases. What’s more worrying is that the Ministry of Health has predicted that the number of Covid-19 cases could hit 8,000 daily in the third week of March if the rate of infection does not go down.
Health Director-General, Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah even said in his daily press conference that the ministry is worried about an additional increase in cases. The four-digit cases daily have even caused quarantine centres to be filled up. As a testament to that, Twitter user @oskortos shared the difference in the Serdang MAEPS quarantine centre before and after there was a massive outbreak of cases.
Pusat Kuarantin MAEPS
From this To this pic.twitter.com/elMtP56nw8
— oskortos (@oskortos) January 8, 2021
The current condition in the quarantine centre is worrying as it seems like there is no form of physical distancing being practiced in the centre.
In a separate thread, the Twitter user explained the sudden increase in Covid-19 cases where he attributed to the government’s decision to allow those returning from overseas to self-quarantine in their own houses.
“After the initial Movement Control Order was over, were there any drastic increase in cases? Malaysians were happily going for holidays, balik kampung, playing football and whatnot.
Do you know when the cases started rising again? When those returning from overseas were allowed to self-quarantine in their houses. Since then, the Covid-19 virus started spreading among the community again.”
The user then brought up previous cases of Malaysians who flouted home-quarantine rules including the viral “makcik-gelang pink” and the restaurant owner who caused the Sivagangga cluster.
These people subsequently spread the infection to foreign workers who live in extremely close quarters with each other. Subsequently, places, where physical distancing is hard to maintain such as foreign workers’ employee quarters and prisons, were badly hit. This was then followed by the allowance of interstate travel and the Sabah elections.
The user even brought up Defence Minister, Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob’s statement on 28 September 2020 that those returning to Peninsular Malaysia from Sabah are NOT required to be quarantined for 14 days if they tested negative for Covid-19 in screening at airports.
“The government’s most foolish decision was to close down the MAEPS quarantine centre and allow people to be quarantined in their homes or hotels. Why did people returning from overseas get this special treatment?
Look at the situation now! The MAEPS centre has been re-opened but there aren’t enough beds, the food is going bad and there aren’t enough staffs to maintain the patients.”
There are talks of another MCO being implemented but the real question is, can we afford another round of quarantine?
Also read: Malaysian Healthcare System “At A Breaking Point”, Targeted MCO Might Be Needed
