Let’s admit this: some of us in Singapore were like, “Oh, Malaysian lockdown? Nothing one lah very fast one lah can stay home watch Netflix so nice” when Malaysia announced its Movement Control Order last month.
I bet the same people saying that are now lying on bed, wondering why it felt like 40 days have passed even when we’re only on the 4th day of our Circuit Breaker period.
So this time, when Malaysia announced that the MCO would be extended for another 14 days, we were all like
M’sia’s MCO Extended Another 2 Weeks; Total of 42 ‘Lockdown’ Days Now
The MCO was announced on 16 March 2020 and took effect from 18 March 2020.
It works quite similar to the Circuit Breaker period we have in Singapore except with a fancier name and a tad more restrictions; for example, barbers weren’t allowed to open so many Malaysians have become F4 members.
Other than that, it works the same way with the same objective. You can read more about the differences here.
Initially, it was supposed to last for 14 days from 18 March 2020, but on 25 March, it was announced that it would be extended until 14 April.
And today, Malaysian PM Muhyiddin Yassin took to the stage to say that it’d be extended until 28 April 2020.
But why, you ask.
According to the PM, it was to “enable healthcare workers to contain the spread of the Covid-19 outbreak among the community.”
Also, it was “in accordance with the view of the World Health Organisation (WHO), which urges countries against lifting movement restrictions immediately.”
Wait, what?
After some European countries started to lift their “lockdown” recently, WHO stepped in to advise countries not to do so.
WHO spokesman Christian Lindmeier said, “One of the most important parts is not to let go of the measures too early in order not to have a fall back again. It’s similar to being sick yourself if you get out of bed too early and get running too early you risk falling back and having complications.”
For example, over in Norway, they shut down schools and non-essential businesses from 12 March 2020, and its Prime Minister said that some restrictions might be lifted off this Sunday, with the Health Minister saying that the infection is “under control” because the number of people each COVID-19 patient has infected has dropped from 2.5 to 0.7.
This is what is called the R-naught, which you can know more about through this video:
Of course, reducing the R-naught within a country isn’t going to solve the problem because the R-naught worldwide is the same. It’s like asking a wife to speak in Doraemon’s voice isn’t going to solve a global problem because not all wives in the world know who Doraemon is.
Over in Malaysia, there has been an improvement though the weeks; while it now has 4,228 cases, the R-naught has decreased.
PM Muhyiddin Yassin said, “The number of (daily) positive cases has also decreased. If this trend continues for the next two weeks, we can prevent COVID-19 from spreading. But we cannot take the situation lightly.”
Of course, the question we have here in Singapore is this: would our Circuit Breaker period be extended as well?
Well, for a start, you can do your part by staying at home.
Worldwide, many countries are now imposing the same restrictions at an earlier date, and since it’s proven to work, we might finally be able to see some normalcy next month.
So just stay at home.
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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