FASTING MUST, RAYA MUST – BUT THE CELEBRATIONS CANNOT: MOH ADVISES MALAYS TO DELAY FULL-FLEDGED CELEBRATIONS – EVEN AS U.S. WARNS 2ND COVID-19 WAVE MAYBE DEADLIER, ARRIVING WITH FLU SEASON

PETALING JAYA: Muslims should celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri but they can delay the festivities, says Minister in the Prime Minister’s Department Datuk Seri Dr Zulkifli Mohamad Al-Bakri (pic).

“After fasting for one month, we are obligated to celebrate Hari Raya Aidilfitri on the first day of Syawal.

“We must eat and we must perform the Hari Raya prayers in the way we are advised to under the movement control order (MCO).

“However, the way we mark the occasion may not be the same as festive celebrations are more about tradition.

“Perhaps we have to limit visiting each other during Hari Raya Aidilfitri while we practise social distancing.

“But we can postpone the festive celebrations that we normally have with open houses and so on.

“As to whether we can postpone the celebrations to another time due to the MCO, we can discuss this possibility in the National Fatwa Council after getting the views of the clerics, ” he said in an interview yesterday.

He was asked to comment on the possibility of Malaysia following the example of Indonesia which has postponed its Hari Raya celebrations.

Senior Minister Datuk Seri Ismail Sabri Yaakob had earlier said that Malaysia may defer its public holidays for the Hari Raya Aidilfitri celebration, which is what Indonesia has done in view of the Covid-19 pandemic.

Indonesia has decided to postpone its Hari Raya Aidilfitri holidays to Dec 28 to 31 to stop the mass movement of its people who will return to their hometowns while the world is still grappling with the Covid-19 pandemic.

CDC chief warns 2nd COVID-19 wave may be worse, arriving with flu season

FILE PHOTO: Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Dr. Robert Redfield testifies about coronavirus preparedness and response to the House Government Oversight and Reform Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., March 12, 2020. REUTERS/Joshua Roberts

(Reuters) – A second wave of the coronavirus is expected to hit the United States next winter and could strike much harder than the first because it would likely arrive at the start of influenza season, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention warned on Tuesday.

“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” CDC Director Robert Redfield told the Washington Post in an interview.

As the current outbreak continues to taper off, as shown by a recent decline in hospitalization rates and other indicators, authorities need to prepare for a probable resurgence in the months ahead.

“We’re going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time,” he said, and the combination would put even greater strain on the nation’s healthcare system than the first outbreak.

The virus, which causes a highly contagious and potentially fatal respiratory illness dubbed COVID-19, emerged late last year in central China. The first known U.S. infection, a travel-related case, was diagnosed on Jan. 20 in Washington state near Seattle.

Since then, nearly 810,000 people have tested positive in the United States, and more than 45,000 have died from the disease.

Redfield and other public health authorities credit drastic stay-at-home orders and widespread business and school closings across the country for slowing the spread of infections. But the restrictions have also stifled American commerce while throwing at least 22 million people out of work over the past four weeks.

Even as the lockdown is gradually eased, Redfield stressed the importance of individuals continuing to practice social distancing among one another.

At the same time, he said, public health authorities must vastly ramp up a testing system to identify those who are infected and to locate their close personal interactions through contact tracing.

Asked about the recent flurry of street protests of stay-at-home orders and calls for states to be “liberated” from such restrictions – as President Donald Trump has advocated on Twitter – Redfield told the Post: “It’s not helpful.”

Building a nationwide contact tracing network, key to preventing newly diagnosed cases from growing into large outbreaks, poses a major challenge because it is so labor intensive, requiring a workforce that by some estimates would require as many as 300,000 personnel.

Redfield said the CDC is discussing with state officials the possibility of enlisting and training workers from the U.S. Census Bureau, and volunteers from Peace Corps and AmeriCorps, to create a new contact tracing workforce. – REUTERS

ANN / REUTERS