PUTRAJAYA: The country may soon be emerging from months of gloom. If all goes well in the next few weeks, Malaysians can expect to see an exit strategy being rolled out.
“This is just the soft landing,” Health Director-General Datuk Seri Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah said yesterday.
There is optimism too in the business community, and health experts stress that even when restrictions are lifted, everyone should still adhere to the standard operating procedures (SOP) such as social distancing.
Noor Hisham told his daily media briefing in Putrajaya yesterday that the exit strategy could be rolled out if the country continues to see only single or double digits in the number of new cases over the next few weeks.
The good news is that the country has been seeing only single digits of new infections among Malaysians in the past few days.
For instance, there were six cases on Monday and only two yesterday.
Such low numbers bode well for Malaysia, according to Malaysian Medical Association (MMA) president Dr N. Ganabaskaran. This, he said, indicates that the conditional movement control order (CMCO) can be lifted soon.
However, he said the people must continue to adhere to the SOP put in place by the government.
“Restrictions must be eased to help the economy recover, but the people cannot be complacent. They must adhere to the SOP to prevent a new outbreak of Covid-19,” he told theSun.
Ganabaskaran said parents should stop taking their children to shopping centres to prevent them from getting infected.
He said some parents may feel that it would be better for them to take their children along so that they can keep an eye on them.
“The problem is that children are boisterous and like to run around and touch things. It will be difficult to look after them and they may unintentionally be exposed to the virus,” he said.
SME Association of Malaysia president Datuk Michael Kang said the lifting of restrictions would pave the way for economic recovery.
“It will be good if we can have more sectors opened. (It would be beneficial) if the social activity sector is opened soon because it plays a big role in revitalising the economy,” he said.
“People are not spending now but once the social sector opens up, people will start to spend and this will benefit SMEs.”
Noor Hisham said if the downward trend in the number of new cases continues, more sector can be reopened.
“We will reopen more sectors, and eventually ensure that all (sectors) resume operations soon.
“And if all sectors have been reopened and the number of cases remain in the lower double or single digits, then we will be ready for an exit strategy,” he added.
Noor Hisham was asked to comment on the country’s preparedness to reopen all sectors and businesses, as the number of new Covid-19 cases continues to drop over the past weeks.
On Monday, he indicated that learning institutions might be allowed to reopen and that Malaysians may be allowed to socialise soon if the number of new cases remains low this week.
On worries that the lifting of more restrictions and the reopening of more sectors could lead to a spike in the number of new cases, Noor Hisham said the Prevention and Control of Infectious Diseases Act would still be in place to enforce all government SOPs.
He said while compliance among Malaysians has been very good, there has been an increasing number of cases among foreigners.
To address this, he said, the government has set up a special committee that would look into foreign workers’ compliance with the SOPs introduced by the Health Ministry.
“This is very important.
“If both Malaysians and foreigners can adhere to the SOPs, then we will be able to ultimately break the Covid-19 chain,” he added.
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