Malaysia’s epidemic persists, with the cumulative number of confirmed cases surpassing that of India in terms of population. Malaysian Prime Minister Muhyiddin has announced an emergency nationwide lockdown starting tomorrow (June 1) and is expected to last until June 14. All social and economic activities will be completely stopped during the total lockdown, and no other areas will be allowed to operate during this period, except for essential economic and service areas.
According to Malaysia’s outbreak report on Friday (May 28), the number of confirmed cases climbed to 8,290 on a single day, with 61 deaths, and an average of 63 deaths per day last week, breaking both records for confirmed and fatal cases. After the addition of 9020 cases on Saturday, 6999 cases were added on Sunday. According to the official website of the Malaysian government, as of 12 p.m. on the 30th, the total number of confirmed cases in the country came to 565533 cases.
Variant strain attack, Malaysia’s third wave of the new crown epidemic raging, May 12 for a period of four weeks from the action control order, the closure of the city policy to reduce some economic activities, and May 22 to strengthen the social ban seem to be ineffective. Muyutin announced in May 28th emergency, from June 1st to 14th, the national implementation of the “National Closure” order all social and economic activities completely stop, by the National Security Council (NSC) announced the “essential stores” and details of the business can still operate The NSC announced the “essential shops” that would remain open and details.
Malaysia is a country with a large Muslim population and Eid al-Fitr, a major national holiday celebrated on May 12 after the month-long Ramadan, was the main cause of the massive epidemic. In a statement, Muyudin mentioned that the rising number of confirmed cases, the number of seriously ill patients also continues to increase, the demand for respirators is high, and the country’s medical resources are strained and already on the verge of collapse. In order to protect the health care system, the Prime Minister’s Office and the Ministry of Health jointly decided to impose a “total lockdown across the territory”.
Our World in Data data shows that the number of confirmed new cases of coronary heart disease in Malaysia is rising rapidly each day and has surpassed India in the key indicator of the rate of confirmed cases per million people. On a 7-day basis, Malaysia reported 194.4 new confirmed cases per million people for 7 consecutive days earlier this week, compared to 178.04 in India.
Since April, India has experienced a devastating second wave of new crowns hitting the country, becoming home to the second highest number of new crown cases in the world. Despite the downward trend in the number of daily cases in the country, it still far exceeds the several thousand cases per day in Malaysia. But on a per-million population basis, Malaysia’s epidemic situation is no more optimistic than India’s, which has a population of about 32 million, much less than India’s 1.4 billion.
Dr Tan Sri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah, Director General of the Malaysian Health Department, tweeted an update reminding frontline workers that they are exhausted and pleading with the Malaysian public to come together to help them cut the chain of transmission of the new coronavirus. In the early hours of today (May 31), he posted several photos of frontline workers struggling to fight the epidemic and wrote, “Frontline workers are exhausted but we are still fighting to save your lives, please help us to help yourself and your family.”
At a press conference last weekend, he pointed out that the epidemic is now declared an emergency in Malaysia and that it is not impossible to add another 1,000 to 2,000 cases per day. He called on the government, relevant agencies and people to work together to overcome the new crown epidemic. It is worth noting that although the number of intensive care wards has increased by 1,000 nationwide, they are currently 90% full and there is no space for some of the critically ill patients to enter intensive care units.
Malaysia’s vaccination program has been slow, with a total of 1.7 million people, or about 5.2% of the population, receiving their first dose of the new crown vaccine as of May 27. Muyutin promised that if there is a significant reduction in the number of confirmed cases in the closed cities across the country, the closure will be gradually lifted to restore the economy. He said, “The Ministry of Economy will announce the Lyric Relief Program and ask people not to worry.”
The Malaysian authorities have spent a total of $72.6 billion in Lyric grants to stimulate the economy since the outbreak of the new crown epidemic in 2020. 2020 saw the overall Malaysian economy slump by 5.6 percent, the worst shock since the Asian financial crisis in 1998. The Malaysian government has previously called for a return to pre-epidemic economic prospects in 2021, when the economy grew by as much as 7.5%, but this time it is once again in the swamp of the epidemic, and there will be a long way to go to revive the economy.
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