Malaysia passed two grim milestones in Covid-19 pandemic yesterday – cumulative totals of 2.4 million Covid-19 cases and 28,000 Covid-19 deaths

Malaysia passed two grim milestones in Covid-19 pandemic yesterday – cumulative totals of 2.4 million Covid-19 cases and 28,000 Covid-19 deaths yesterday when we recorded daily 5,745 new Covid-19 cases and 69 Covid-19 deaths.

The cumulative totals for Covid-19 cases and deaths in Malaysia are now 2,401,866 cases and 28,062 deaths respectively.

My “ecstasy” yesterday that Malaysia could reduce new Covid-19 cases by dropping a thousand numeral a day in daily new Covid-19 cases, as happened on Oct. 16 with 7,509 new Covid-19 cases, Oct. 17 with 6,145 new Covid-19 cases and Oct. 18 with 5,434 new Covid-19 cases was dashed when Malaysia recorded 5,745 new Covid-19 cases on Oct. 19, 2021.

This was replaced by the “agony” and the prospect that it is going to be quite a while before Malaysia can reduce daily new Covid-19 cases to three-digit and then double-digit numbers.

It is ironical and shocking that when we declared an Emergency to combat Covid-19 pandemic on January 11, 2021, there were a cumulative total of 138,224 Covid-19 cases and 555 Covid-19 deaths.

When the National Recovery Plan was announced on June 15, 2021, the cumulative total of Covid-19 cases have increased to 667,876 cases and Covid-19 deaths increased to 6,613 deaths.

Now, with cumulative totals of over 2.4 million Covid-19 cases and over 28,000 Covid-19 deaths, all states are in the process of fully re-opening as they are now in Phase 3 (Kelantan, Perak, Penang, Sabah, Kedah, Perlis, Terengganu, Sarawak, Johor) or the final Phase 4 (Malacca, Putrajaya, Kuala Lumpur, Selangor, Pahang, Negri Sembilan, Labuan) of the National Recovery Plan although the country is recording over new 5,000 Covid-19 cases daily and in high double-digit fatality figures daily.

At the present rate of infection, it seems to be tall order for the new Health Minister, Khairy Jamaluddin, to achieve by his first hundred days on Dec. 7 the targets of ensuring that the cumulative totals of Covid-19 cases and deaths do not reach three million cases and 30,000 deaths respectively.

Malaysia has wasted almost one year in the war against the Covid-19 pandemic.