PETALING JAYA: Continued but targeted lockdowns and speeding up the vaccination drive are the only strategies to win the fight against Covid-19.
Any move to ease restrictions now could spell disaster, according to health experts.
Universiti Malaya head of social and preventive medicine Dr Victor Hoe said following the steps of countries that have lifted restrictions, such as the United Kingdom, is not the way to address the pandemic in Malaysia.
“We have done the best we can. Even then, the number of new cases reported daily remains high despite the enhanced movement control order,” he said.
“We need to bring the numbers down to a manageable level and vaccinate people as quickly as possible.”
In the UK, restrictions will be lifted on July 19 even as the country braces for more than 100,000 new cases every day.
Nonetheless, the UK government justified the easing of restrictions with the fact that 64% of its population has been vaccinated.
On the other hand, Sydney has just extended its lockdown by another two weeks after recording 164 new cases over the last week, averaging 23 a day.
Former secretary of the Health Department in Australia, Stephen Duckett, attributed the surge to what he described as a vaccine roll-out that has been a “complete and utter train wreck”.
Only 7.4% of the Australian population has been vaccinated, one of the lowest among developed countries.
Hoe said the management of the pandemic varies from one country to another. But the bottom line is that it would be an error to assume that a high vaccination rate will lead to lower infection numbers.
“The vaccine is effective in preventing severe symptoms and death but it does not prevent infection.”
He added that people in the UK must continue to be vigilant although a large proportion of them have been vaccinated.
“Globally, the rate of infection has yet to come down.”
Professor of virology at University of Nottingham Malaysia Dr Sandy Loh said Malaysia should emphasise boosting vaccination while applying full lockdowns in targeted areas and introduce more stringent measures to restrict social events.
She said the various “grades” of movement control orders applied since last year have failed to yield the desired results, which is to bring the infection rate down.
Loh pointed out that the UK plan to lift restrictions is “rather risky”, considering the Delta variant – the most virulent strain now – is still rampant there.
“Vaccinations must not fail to keep pace with the spread of the Delta variant, given that it poses a significant threat.”
“Generally, vaccines are proven to be less effective against Delta infections but mainly prevents severe illness. So, the key message is that as vaccinated people might still be infected, we should never loosen the SOP after vaccination,” she said.
She urged the UK government to learn from the surge after it lifted restrictions last year, before offering its people “a sort of summer relief”.
“They obviously jumped the gun. This time, it may be worse as we are facing the dangerous Delta variant.”
Loh said the one lesson humanity has to learn from Covid-19 is that the world will not return to pre-pandemic conditions.
“At least, we have learned to equip ourselves to face any emerging infections in the future,” she added.
