Malaysia, like many other countries, imposed a lockdown after seeing a huge spike in coronavirus numbers.
With the exception of a stubborn minority, citizens have abided by the Movement Control Order (MCO) and stayed at home for the most part.
Yes, everyone in Malaysia is clearly taking the MCO seriously, which is why this group of workers very considerately gathered in public, took their shirts off, and started dancing with each other in- wait what?
Foreign Workers in M’sia Blatantly Gathered in Extremely Large Crowds to Celebrate Songkran Festival
Many of you may not know this, but Thailand has its own New Year national holiday.
Called the Songkran festival, the national holiday is celebrated in numerous countries every year from 13th-16th April.
But, like many huge social events across the globe, the festival was cancelled in Thailand this year due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Not everyone called off their Songkran parties, though.
Even though Malaysia just entered the third stage of their MCO, a video showing a group of Myanmar foreign workers singing and dancing in large groups has been making the rounds on social media.
The workers allegedly gathered outside a dormitory building in Sepang, Selangor to celebrate the Songkran Festival, according to World of Buzz.
In the video, groups of people can be seen dancing in close proximity with each other, some of whom have removed their shirts.
Either they read a WhatsApp message saying sweaty dancing with strangers can kill the coronavirus, or they just don’t care.
Over 60 Workers Arrested
They didn’t get away with, however.
According to The Star, 62 workers have been arrested for allegedly celebrating the water festival within the compounds of their hostel despite orders to remain indoors during the MCO.
The police are continuing investigations to trace others who are believed to have participated in the celebration.
Lockdown Extended By 2 Weeks
Despite some improvement, Malaysia recently extended its lockdown for the second time, with the MCO scheduled to end on 28 April 2020.
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.”
At the time of writing, the country has 4,817 infections and 77 deaths.
2,276 have recovered from the illness so far.
Social Distancing Works, But We Must Comply
As you can see from this graph, after a huge spike in cases from 10 March to 5 April, the number of cases in Malaysia has started to dwindle.
And a similar fall in cases in countries like China shows that social distancing works if one very basic principle is followed: everyone complies with the instructions of the authorities.
If staying at home for a couple of months or so will allow us to lead normal lives again after the Covid-19 pandemic dies down, what’s the big deal?
With the advent of the internet, there are a million things to do indoors and several ways to keep in contact with your friends and loved ones without risking the health of those around you.
So please, even if there’s a festival you look forward to celebrating every year, just put it off for 2020; we won’t die if we miss a couple of outings with our friends.
Reader: I will die on the inside
We can live with that, dear reader.
Here’s a simplified summary of the South Korea martial law that even a 5-year-old would understand:
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