Malaysia is not only among the worst performing nations in the first year in the pre-vaccination phase of Covid-19 pandemic, but regarded as likely to be among the worst performing nations in the second year of the vaccination phase of the pandemic

Malaysia is not only among the worst performing nations in the first year in the pre-vaccination phase of the Covid-19 pandemic, but regarded as likely to be among the worst performing nations in the second year of the vaccination phase of the pandemic.

Malaysia must pull ourselves up by the bootstraps so that we could be one of the better performing nations in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic in the year of the second vaccination phase.

We do not want the hashtag #KerajaanGagal, which trended on Twitter yesterday, reflecting Malaysians’ frustration over Perikatan Nasional (PN) government’s incompetence and kakistocracy ranging from the Covid-19 situation to the economy, to also become an international phenomenon.

The East Asia and Pacific region is one of the few global bright spots in the first year in the pre-vaccination phase in the fight against the COVID-19 pandemic unlike the disastrous performance of United States and the European nations, and such a success provides many lessons on containing infectious diseases at a low cost to the economy in an era of chronic pandemics.

But Malaysia is the exception as we have performed dismally in the pre-vaccination phase as compared to many countries in the region.

The latest monthly report of the Bloomberg Covid Resilience Ranking on March 25 again showed Malaysia as trailing behind Singapore, Taiwan, South Korea, China, Japan, Thailand, Hong Kong and Vietnam in our performance as a nation in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic.

Now, the world is entering a new phase of pandemic measures in the vaccination era, and the tables are somewhat turning.

The US and UK are leading the world in their mass vaccination campaigns, while some Asia-Pacific countries that won praise for containing the virus are lagging and Malaysia is among the worst laggards.

Malaysia is ranked No. 45 among countries with the most cumulative total of Covid-19 cases, and is in a most unfavourable position as shown by the following table:

However, according to the Bloomberg Vaccine Tracker, more than 860 million doses have been administered across 155 countries worldwide, but in Malaysia, only 1.3 per cent of the population had been fully vaccinated, while 2.1 per cent administered one dose of the vaccine as compared to the following nations:

There is a need for a greater sense of urgency about the national vaccination rollout in Malaysia as it is a recipe for disaster to have a largely unvaccinated people in a world where Covid-19 is mutating and changing rapidly.

This is why Parliament must be reconvened immediately in view of the dire prospects of a fourth wave of the Covid-19 pandemic in Malaysia, when Malaysia had not been able to bring the eight-month-long Covid third wave under control – by reducing the daily increase of Covid-19 cases to double-digit figures as in last August.

Yesterday, the daily increase of new Covid-19 cases in Malaysia reached a new high of 2,551 cases – with Sarawak setting a new daily record of 960 cases.

We have a snail’s pace development in the national vaccination rollout and all MPs should find ways and means to make the national Covid-19 vaccination rollout not only a success but to accelerate and complete it by Malaysia Day on Sept. 16 so that normality and economic recovery efforts can be initiated as early as possible.