India’s daily Coronavirus cases appear to have dropped from above 400,000 in the first week of May to just 240,842 on Saturday (May 22). Malaysia, on the other hand, is still at its early stage of hitting new records. Today, the country hit another jackpot when it recorded a new record of Covid-19 cases with 6,976 daily infections, bringing the total number of cases to 512,091.

 

When compared, Malaysia’s 6,320 cases certainly do not look like a big deal when stacked against India’s 240,842 cases (May 22). However, Malaysia’s population of 33 million is 41.8 times smaller than India’s 1.38 billion people. It means if you multiply 6,320 Covid daily infections by 41.8 times, Malaysia’s new cases were 264,176 – worse than India.

 

Some might say India’s statistic is unreliable and the country has been under-reporting the infections to save the Modi government from political humiliation. But who can say for sure that Malaysia’s data has not been manipulated in the same way to save the Muhyiddin backdoor government from a similar political collapse?

The only consolation is that Malaysia has yet to see the level of deaths seen in India. But it won’t be long before that happens. Using the same 41.8 times multiplier, the country’s 50 deaths translate to 2,090 daily fatalities, as compared to India’s 3,741 (May 22). When Malaysia’s death toll hits 90 in a day (translates to 3,762 deaths), it would see the mass Covid-19 cremations like India.

 

Still, this week alone saw 346 deaths due to Covid – the highest number of deaths in a week since the outbreak last year in Malaysia. This translates to 14,462 fatalities if multiplies 41.8 times. Already, hospitals like the Sungai Buloh Hospital have started purchasing more freezer containers to keep the bodies of the dead Covid patients. But does the Muhyiddin government care?

 

Nope, instead of a nationwide lockdown, the incompetent backdoor regime has chosen yet another half-baked MCO 3.0 lockdown with some minor tunings. The country is essentially worse than India, but the power-hungry Prime Minister Mahiaddin alias Muhyiddin thinks he could send the virus to bed early by limiting the operating hours of businesses – from current 8am-10pm to 8am-8pm.

The two hours cut for business could do more harm than good as workers would rush to buy dinners at food outlets or restaurants, potentially creating unnecessarily crowds. If past experience is any indicator, food outlets would start shutting down by 7:30pm to do cleaning in order to prevent being slapped with compounds or fines for operating beyond the permissible hours.

 

Today, Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Minister Alexander Nanta Linggi said a limit of two hours will be applied to customers in retail outlets, including shopping malls – effective May 25. Apparently, the ministry will send 2,262 enforcement officers to ensure the latest standard operating procedures (SOP) are complied. Seriously? Exactly how do you plan to enforce the 2 hour limit?

 

Is the genius government going to slap each customer with an RFID tag and subject them to RM5,000 penalty if they exceed the time limit? Or will those enforcement officers follow each customer and record the time spent for violations? Did the minister, who does not need to worry about groceries, realize the amount of time wasted in queue to enter a supermarket for daily essentials?

If the government was so concerned about people spending unnecessary time in shopping malls, why not just impose a full-scale lockdown like the MCO 1.0? On one hand, the government has refused to implement a full shutdown (except for essential services) under the pretext of saving businesses. But on the other hand, they treat citizens like kindergarten kids with 2-hour playtime.

 

To restrict customers to just two hours in a shopping mall would mean other outlets in the same mall would suffer a decline in business, would they not? So, what’s the purpose of allowing every business to open in the first place, a decision that would allow the virus to spread? In the same breath, it’s laughable that Health director-general Dr Noor Hisham Abdullah has urged people to impose self-lockdown.

 

In case Dr Noor hadn’t realized, most people have been in self-lockdown for more than a year – until the government’s screw-up. It was the government’s policy U-turns and SOP flip-flops that had forced people to go back to the office, instead of working from home, not to mention the false perception created that the worst was over after the MCO 2.0 lockdown was prematurely lifted.

It seems the clueless government was contradicting itself. Does it want people to go into self-lockdown and make the already sagging economy worse, or does it want people to go shopping unrestricted and excite the economy? It has to make up its mind. The regime can’t have the best of both worlds – defeating the virus and enjoying a roaring economy at the same time.

 

Additional restrictions to get 80% of all government workers in the public sector, as well as 40% of workers in the private sector to work from home, have also raised eyebrows. If 80% civil servants involving 750,000 people could actually work from home, does that mean the government is indeed bloated with workers? How do you make sure they work from home, and not sleep at home or go shopping?

 

On the contrary, how does the government plan to ensure 40% of workers in the private sector work from home, when many had been forced – even threatened – to work from office previously? What can the government do if private sector, involving 6.1 workers, refuses to comply, knowing very well that there isn’t any enforcement in place to check, let alone penalise, them?

It’s also hilarious when the government told people to wear double masks and face shields now. Dr Noor said wearing two face masks could filter up to 95% of the Covid-19 virus. Senior Minister “turtle egg” Ismail Sabri, meanwhile, warned that the wearing of face shields and “niqab” (worn by some Muslim women as a part of a particular interpretation of hijab) without a face mask is an offence.

 

Cool, it took Mr Sabri more than a year to discover the problem of Muslim women wearing “niqab” without a face mask. Was Dr Noor trying to say the situation has gotten worse because people did not wear enough face masks from the beginning? Perhaps he could explain why the UK and the US have managed to bring down their Coronavirus infections, despite resistance to wear even a single mask.

 

The problem isn’t about how many layers of mask to wear, but rather the quality of the mask itself. Some 3-ply surgical face masks selling at least RM30 a box (50 pieces) could provide between 96% to 98% filtration. A second mask is also generally not necessary when wearing an N95, which are certified to filter out at least 95% of very small particles.

On the same note, there are shops selling so-called 3-ply face masks at RM10 a box (50 pieces) or even cheaper. Clearly, the materials used for filtration play a major part in protecting the people. A cloth mask made of common textiles offers very little protection against bacteria, let alone virus. But cloth masks are cheap, washable and reusable.

 

Therefore, there are differences between cloth masks, surgical masks and N95 masks. Wearing double cloth masks isn’t as effective as wearing a single good quality surgical mask. But you can’t expect people who are already struggling to put food on the table to be able to afford surgical masks costing RM30 a box for a family of eight, let alone luxurious masks like those worn by ministers or prime ministers.

 

Before Dr Noor took the lazy way out by suggesting double masking, he should also consider the factor of maintaining breathability. It double masks aren’t breathable, people will just take it off simply because you would die of suffocation before the virus could create enough damage to kill you. Has the Health Ministry analysed the type of masks worn by those infected with Covid-19?

Instead of spending RM35 million to build two useless halls in his constituency and hijacking billions of dollars meant to procure vaccines, perhaps the illegitimate PM Mahiaddin should explain why it can’t subsidize good quality face masks to protect the people. At the very least, the government should spend enough to educate people how to correctly wear a face mask.

 

Yes, besides a quality face mask, people are still ignorant about the proper way to mask up. But when even arrogant and gullible ministers use masks to cover their mouth but not their nose, you don’t need a rocket scientist to tell you why the Coronavirus infection skyrockets to planet Mars. And do we have to start lecturing the ministers the danger of pulling the face mask down to the chin?

 

Prime Minister Muhyiddin insisted that a full lockdown cannot be done, because the MCO 1.0 had led to a total economic collapse, costing approximately RM2.4 billion a day. That’s an admission that his government had actually screwed up by using the wrong tool. When the first MCO lockdown was declared in March 2020, the total number of cases was only 553.

More importantly, the outbreak was confined to certain areas like Selangor and Federal Territory Kuala Lumpur. However, the inexperienced prime minister got panicked and shut down the entire country when he should have locked down only infected territory. Back then, most of the states in the country were free from the virus. Today, the entire country is infected with not a single green zone.

 

Yet, when it’s absolutely necessary to fully lock down the country, the government has done the opposite. Everything was upside-down. Last year, with 553 Coronavirus cases, a targeted lockdown would have been sufficient, but the government declared a full lockdown. Now, with 500,000 Covid cases, a full lockdown is needed, but the government declared a half-backed lockdown.

 

Sure, a full lockdown will have a huge impact on the economy and jobs. But hey, you can’t win all the time. The backdoor Perikatan Nasional government can’t have its cake and eat it too. It claims to try to balance between saving lives and protecting livelihoods. However, based on the slow pace of vaccination, it could backfire with more deaths while leaving a trail of destruction in the economy.

In reality, backdoor PM Muhyiddin is trying to save his throne more than the people’s lives. Refusal to lockdown will only prolong the death toll (not stop it) without any urgency to vaccinate the people – a recipe for the regime to extend the state of emergency to cling to power. As far as the power-crazy regime is concerned, it’s better that people die than its own demise.

 

Other Articles That May Interest You …

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• Taliban Hadi Should Learn This – How UK Says Goodbye To Lockdown After Covid Cases Drop From 70,000 to 2,000
• Congrats Muhyiddin – Angry Malay Voters Want To Teach The Government A Lesson At The 15th General Election
• Health DG Noor Hisham Should Take Responsibility – Stop Blaming The People For The Skyrocketing Covid-19 Cases
• MCO 3.0 Lockdown On The Cards – After School & Ramadan Bazaar Clusters, Get Ready For “Balik Kampung” Cluster
• Malays’ Anger Against Clueless & Incompetent Muhyiddin Government Has Now Spread To The Royal House
• The Worst Is Yet To Come – Muhyiddin’s Mishandling Of Covid-19 & Mismanagement Of Economy Is Worse Than Trump
• Emergency Rule Gimmick Exposed – Stocks Plunge, MCO To End, Patients To Pay Own Bills At Private Hospitals
• Blood On Incompetent Muhyiddin Regime’s Hands – Doctors May Have To Decide Who Can Live And Who Dies
• New Wave!! – Power Hungry Muhyiddin Is Responsible For The Spread Of Covid-19 From Sabah To The Entire Country

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May 23rd, 2021 by financetwitter

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