Malaysia will overtake China with more cumulative total of Covid-19 cases when Dewan Rakyat adjourns on Thursday, if not sooner in two days’ time by Wednesday
If the trajectory of the daily increase of new Covid-19 cases in Malaysia is maintained, Malaysia will overtake China with more cumulative total of Covid-19 cases when Dewan Rakyat adjourns on Thursday – if not sooner in two days’ time by Wednesday.
This is not something for Malaysia to be proud, because China has over 40 times the population of Malaysia, with China 1.4 billion population compared to Malaysia’s 32 million population .
Malaysia is now ranked No. 80 among countries with the most cumulative total of Covid-19 cases, i.e.83,475 cases compared to China, ranked No. 79, with 86,725 cases.
Yesterday, Malaysia had a daily increase of 1,229 new cases, though a drop from the previous day’s increase of 1,937 cases, still in the four-digit daily increase as on Dec. 10 (2,234 cases) and Dec. 11 (1,810 cases).
In fact, it would appear that Malaysia at its present trajectory, would pass the 100,000-mark for cumulative total of Covid-19 cases before the end of the year, leaving China far behind.
The US Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) projected Malaysia to have a continuous rise in Covid-19 cases until mid-March 2021, hitting over 5,000 infections daily on February 25.
The IHME model, which is also used by the Trump administration, predicted 2,987 new coronavirus cases in Malaysia on January 1, increasing to 4,176 Covid-19 infections on February 1, and 5,130 cases on March 1.
The trend is projected to rise until March 21 with 5,379 infections that day, and then declining to 5,301 cases on April 1.
If this IHME model is proved right, then Malaysia may become among the world’s top 30 or 40 nations with the most cumulative total of Covid-19 cases by the second quarter of next year.
But this need not be, if Malaysia adopts an “all-of-government” and “whole-of-society” mindset and approach to the war against the Covid-19 pandemic.
This was the mindset and approach recommended by the World Health Organisation when it declared Covid-19 as a pandemic on March 11, 2020 – when there were some 118,000 Covid-19 infections. Today, there are more than 72.6 million Covid-19 cases in the world and the pandemic has killed over 1.6 million people.
For a year, the Muhyiddin government has failed to adopt a “all-of-government” and “whole-of –society” mindset and approach in the war against Covid-19 pandemic.
Instead, we see prevalent double-standards by the Ministers and top government officials where the Standard Operating Procedures (SOP) on Covid-19 apply to ordinary Malaysians but not to VIPs and VVIPs.
The time has come for Malaysia to adopt an “all-of-government” and “whole-of-society” mindset and approach in the war against Covid-19 pandemic.
Malaysia must aim to be among the top 30 nations in the world in the war against corruption and in public integrity, and not be among the top 30 nations in the world in failure in public health policy with the most cumulative total of Covid-19 cases.
Let Malaysia be a success story in the Covid-19 pandemic, like South Korea which is ranked No. 90, or Hong Kong which is ranked No. 132, or Thailand which is ranked No. 151, or Vietnam which is ranked No. 169 among countries with the most Covid-19 cases, and not like United States, which is No. 1, or Brazil No. 3 or United Kingdom which is No. 6 in the world with most number of Covid-19 cases.
The first step for Malaysia to adopt an “all-of-government” and “whole-of-society” mindset and approach in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic is for Dewan Rakyat to establish a Select Committee on Covid-19 pandemic under the chairmanship of former Health Minister, Dzulkefly Ahmad, to conduct public hearings and involve the country’s best minds in the war against Covid-19 pandemic.
I have made this proposal many times but I seem like a voice in the wilderness.
If Dewan Rakyat does nothing to set up such a Select Committee on Covid-19, is the Dewan Negara under the new President, Rais Yatim, prepared to do so?