Muhyiddin should not delay in announcing an economic rescue package for SMEs as top priority must also be given to ensure that Malaysia can win the war to restart the economic engine without suffering an economic catastrophe after winning the war against the resurgence of Covid-19 outbreak

The Prime Minister, Tan Sri Muhyiddin Yassin should not delay in announcing an economic rescue package for small and medium enterprises (SMEs) as they are very tight in cash flow and expect no cash inflow at least three months due to the month-long Movement Control Order (MCO).

An economic rescue package for the SMEs is urgent and imperative as the government should give top priority to the need for continuous and secured employment as well as income as well as to the unprecedented challenge of how to restart the Malaysian economic engine after the MCO.

The survival of businesses is the key to economic resilience and employment sustainability, which is why the government must ensure that businesses, being the engines of the economy, driver of growth and providers of employment, could survive the Covid-19 pandemic.

Muhyiddin should not delay in announcing an economic rescue package for SMEs as top priority must also be given to ensure that Malaysia can win the war to restart the economic engine without suffering an economic catastrophe after winning the war against the resurgence of Covid-19 outbreak.

The world is fighting a world war and our challenge and responsibility is to win not only the invisible global war against Covid-19 but to be able to restart the Malaysian economic engine without suffering an economic catastrophe after the Covid-19 pandemic.

I share the restrained optimism of the Health Director-General Dr. Noor Hisham Abdullah that data collected by the Health Ministry shows an early sign that the MCO to curb the spread of Covid-19 by breaking the chain of infection is working.

As I said yesterday: “Apart from March 23rd and 26th where confirmed Covid-19 cases recorded daily increase of 212 and 235 cases respectively, the daily increase of confirmed cases in the past 17 days from March 15 have been below 200 cases.

“There has been a good recovery rate, with another 58 Covid-19 patients discharged from hospitals in the last 24 hours, bringing the total recoveries to 537.

“Although one death is too many in Malaysia, it is significant that we have been able to keep the death rate low, although it has reached its highest of 1.55%, i.e. 43 deaths out of a total confirmed total of 2,766 cases.

“We should aim to keep the death rate to below one per cent, which would mean we should be able to keep the total death rate to below 100 cases in the current surge of the Covid-19 pandemic.”

If there is no new spike in the daily increase of Covid-19 cases, and the plateau in increases of Covid-19 cases could be sustained, the worst in the resurgence of Covid-19 may be over.

Malaysia will then be spared the nightmare of the Covid-19 pandemic which is afflicting other part of the world, particularly in Europe and the United States.

Mankind has still to enter the winning phase of the invisible global war against Covid-19 pandemic, as sometime today, the grim milestone of total global confirmed cases of Covid-19 would race past the million mark.

The latest global data on the invisible war against the Covid-19 pandemic in the last 24 hours for Malaysia and the top 12 countries cases with confirmed Covid-19 cases are as follows: (https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/)

• Global: 934,464 cases; 47,175 deaths (5%)
• US: 214,482 cases, 5,093 deaths (2.4%)
• Italy: 110,574 cases, 13,155 deaths (11.9%)
• Spain: 104,118 cases, 9,387 deaths (9%)
• China: 81,554 cases, 3,312 deaths (4%)
• Germany 77,981 cases, 931 deaths (1.2%)
• France: 56,989 cases, 4,032 deaths (7.1%)
• Iran: 47,593 cases, 3,036 deaths (6.4%)
• UK: 29,474 cases, 2,352 deaths (7.97%)
• Switzerland 17,768 cases; 488 deaths (2.75%)
• Turkey 15,679 cases, 277 deaths (1.77%)
• Belgium 13,964 cases, 828 deaths (5.9%)
• Netherlands: 13.614 cases, 1,173 deaths (8.6)
• Malaysia 2,908 cases, 45 deaths (1.55%)

The total of 27,635 Covid-19 deaths in the top three countries, United States, Italy and Spain of 27,635 is more than eight times the total death toll of 3,312 in China.

With the American Prersident Donald Trump – who just one month ago claimed the virus was “very much under control” - now saying 200,000 Americans could die from Covid-19, and the UK authorities expecting a death toll of between 10,000- 20,000, the worst of the nightmare of the global invisible war against Covid-19 is yet to come.