Why going back into lockdown is unnecessary

 

The government has decided not to bring back much of the restrictions that were imposed when the movement control order (MCO) was introduced on March 18, despite the spike in Covid-19 cases.

As the owner of a small- and medium-sized enterprise (SME), as well as a father and son to an ageing mum, I am totally in full support of this decision – for now.

Rolling back on the freedom we have been granted to stem the rising infection may seem like the logical thing to do. But when one looks deeper into this issue, it is not as cut and dry as one would imagine. If the government were to ban interstate travel, shutter businesses and schools, the economic fallout would be disastrous.

My SME has suffered a massive drop of around 56% in revenue since March. Within the business community, the general consensus is that we can’t afford another lockdown. If not for the loan moratorium and wage subsidy, many more businesses would have folded up for good.

A friend recently related that a business associate of his was practically suicidal looking at how the business he had built over the decades crumble under the weight of economic hardship brought on by the pandemic.

There is a need to strike a balance between lives and livelihoods and I feel the government has walked the thin line rather well. Relying on data-driven strategies rather than knee-jerk reactions, the government has provided a steady hand in managing one of the worst crises we have ever faced in recent times.

Let’s look at the facts: While the number of new cases are high, most of them are from identifiable locations. For example, of Kedah’s 102 new cases on Oct 3, 97 were from the prison Tembok cluster.

In Sabah, currently the top Covid-19 hotbed, 100 of the 155 new cases reported on the same day came from contact tracing from the four known clusters. Obviously, when active case detection is carried out, more cases will emerge.

This brings to mind the Singapore experience where the republic saw a sudden spike in cases, mostly from the living quarters of its foreign workers. The aggressive contact tracing saw over 57,000 cases reported there to date, despite its smaller population and size, relative to Malaysia’s and supposed superior healthcare system.

The international financial district did not succumb to public pressure demanding stricter restrictions that could hurt the economy more than it already did.

Likewise, Malaysia, which has done fairly well in containing the spread of the virus before this. We already have a working system in place that, by all indications, has been able to handle the sudden rise in cases – at least for now. Our hospital beds for Covid-19 patients are only running at about 25% capacity and we have enough quarantine centres and manpower for the time being.

Besides, the government has imposed targeted enhanced movement control order in Covid-19 hotspots and will continue to do so. This is a more practical solution that has proven to work in the past. If the Kota Setar district has a high number of cases, the authorities just need to lock down that area and there is no necessity to lock down the whole of Kedah or even the whole country.

There is a need to be rational and level-headed in the time of crisis. The government has done fairly well for now – managing not just the pandemic, but the economic fallout as well. And until data shows otherwise, let’s support this government in treading this fine line between lives and livelihoods.

 

Marcus Chan is an FMT reader.

The views expressed are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of MMKtT.